The God and the Slug
by Tyrsis
Summary: The Animorphs discover the Yeerks aren't the only interstellar parasites that want Earth. There is another race that's bent on either enslaving or destroying the planet. They're not picky. Stargate SG1 Crossover.
1. The Newcomers

For anyone following my other story, "The Next Great War," rest assured that I'm not abandoning it. I've just hit a bout writer's block. I know what I want to say and how I want the story to end up, but putting pen to paper in a way that satisfies me is proving difficult. In the meantime, here's another story that been bouncing around my head for a while. The point of view is a departure from TNGW. I've decided to use the "My name is…" first person bit to try to make it more like an Animorph book

Oh, yeah. I don't own Animorphs.

* * *

**Marco**

"RRRRRAAAAUGH!"

I bellowed as a Hork-Bajir's wrist-blade cut into my shoulder. I knocked her aside with an enormous hairy fist. This operation was going from bad to worse. There had been more Hork-Bajir than we expected and reinforcements were undoubtedly on the way.

Whoa, maybe I should back up. I ought to explain why I was fighting things called Hork-Bajir. And why I had large hairy hands. The hands of a gorilla.

My name is Marco, and I'm caught up in a war, boys and girls. No, I haven't enlisted and been shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan. This war involves the entire human race.

The Earth is in the midst of an increasingly militaristic alien invasion, only you wouldn't know it. Or maybe you would, if you had a Yeerk in your head.

The Yeerks are parasitic alien slugs. They have the slightly unnerving ability to crawl inside your head, wrap themselves around your brain, and assume utter control over your body. You don't speak, the Yeerk does. You don't scratch an itch, the Yeerk does. You don't even take a whiz, the Yeerk does. All you can do is watch hopelessly from the back of your mind as the Yeerks try to infest your friends, family, and eventually your planet.

Humanity is only the latest species to catch the eye of the Yeerks. They have already completely enslaved many races, like the Gedds, the Taxxons, and the Hork-Bajir. The chief nemeses of the Yeerks are the Andalites, a highly advanced race that is stretched thin trying to hold off the slugs.

An Andalite Dome ship came to Earth trying to head off the Yeerks. It badly underestimated the strength of the Yeerks, though, and was destroyed. A lone fighter from the Dome ship, piloted by a prince named Elfangor, came down to Earth. For better or for worse, my four friends and I were the first people Elfangor met. In an attempt to give the human race a fighting chance, he gave each of us Andalite morphing power, the power to turn into any animal we touch. Later we found a sixth member of our team, an Andalite who survived the Dome ship's crash and who was, coincidentally, Elfangor's brother.

Now me, my best friend and de facto leader Jake, Jake's beautiful but unnervingly vicious cousin Rachel, our resident animal expert Cassie, boy-turned bird Tobias, and the Andalite Ax are all that oppose the Yeerks on Earth. Together we make the Animorphs, a name that I coined.

OK, we're not all that oppose the Yeerks, but we are the only ones who actively fight. We have allies, the android Chee, who spy on the Yeerks and keep us in the Yeerkish loop. It was the Chee who told us that the Yeerks had recently completed a large weapons installation in the forest. A weapons installation that had to be taken out. Naturally, we went on our way to hopefully at least damage the installation.

We do stuff like that all the time. And nine times out of ten it shapes up to be an exceedingly bad idea.

This was one of those times.

The Hork-Bajir I had knocked aside had regained her balance and was trying her darndest to decapitate me. I managed to dodge the swipe she made with her deadly arm-blade, but what I didn't see was the kick she made. She embedded her knee-blade in my gut and I doubled over, bellowing in pain.

With me on the ground the Hork-Bajir was about to make another go at separating my head when it was tackled by an orange blur. A tiger ripped the alien's throat out before the animal turned to me.

(I think it is time to leave,) the tiger, Jake, said.

(Easier said than done,) I replied, glancing around. The other members of our team were all fighting for their lives. Cassie, in wolf morph and missing large patches of fur as well as both ears, was on top of a struggling Hork-Bajir. Rachel, in bear morph, was throwing one Hork-Bajir around even as another was slashing away at her back. Tobias was somewhere in Hork-Bajir morph hoping to spread confusion. Ax was in his natural Andalite body, whipping two and fro with his deadly tail. They were all busy with Hork-Bajir who didn't look likely to break off from the attack anytime soon.

(We need to-) I began. I heard a noise and glanced up, just in time to see two Yeerk Bug Fighters zoom by overhead. (Crap! Reinforcements! Jake we need to just break off and haul butt before those fighters land.)

Jake nodded. (Everyone-) he began before stopping. A loud shriek filled the air, different from the sound the Bug Fighters had made. This time everyone, Hork-Bajir and Animorph, stopped and looked up.

A lone ship whizzed by. It looked like an inverted boomerang, with the wings angled slightly downward. A long staff protruded from under each wing. It sure wasn't any ship I had ever seen.

The Bug Fighters must have seen it, because rather than landing and releasing the Hork-Bajir reinforcements they surely held, they streaked toward the strange craft. Without even slowing, the unknown ship shot several energy blasts from the shafts under the wings, easily destroying the two Yeerk craft, and streaking right on forward and out of sight.

A moment later it came into view again, this time lower in the sky. (Uh, guys,) I said (I have a bad feeling about this.) A second later, the ship opened fire, blasts striking the ground all around the battlefield.

(Everyone, get to the deep woods!) Jake ordered.

We fled from the chaos of exploding dirt and screaming Hork-Bajir. We had almost made the tree line when…

Keeew-BAAAAAM

(AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)

Rachel screamed as she flew threw the air. An energy blasts had struck the ground just behind her. The grizzly bear went down hard, badly burned and with her legs and one arm twisteed into unnatural angles.

(Rachel!) Cassie screamed. (Demorph!)

(Can't…) Rachel said, her words strained with pain. (The…Yeerks'll see…me.)

Oh yeah, about that. The Yeerks think we're Andalite bandits, survivors from the Dome ship. And aside from the morphing technology, that's our best advantage.

Tobias looked back toward the melee. (Those Hork-Bajir won't be telling anyone anything,) he said. (They're toast.) He turned to Rachel. (C'mon, demorph. NOW!)

Rachel gave no response, but a second later the grizzly bear started to shrink. Its fur melted into its skin as fingers and toes emerged from fish hook claws. A moment later, Rachel, completely human, got off the ground and moved quickly behind the trees, with the rest of us running after her. Or hobbling, in my case. It's hard to run with a hole in your gut.

When we felt we had put enough distance between us and the killer fighter craft, the rest of us demorphed. Jake, Cassie, and I went human, while Tobias went to his natural red-tailed hawk form. Tobias is a nothlit, trapped in a morph because he went over the two-hour time limit. Thanks to some intervention from the nigh-omnipotent being the Ellimist, Tobias regained the morphing power, but as a hawk.

While the four of us demorphed and recovered from our injuries, Ax, in his natural shape, kept watch. His head was pointed back the way we came, while his movable stalk eyes scanned the skies.

"What the heck was that thing?" Jake asked. "It didn't seem Yeerk, and I doubt it was human."

(It is not a craft I am familiar with, Prince Jake,) Ax replied. (It seemed-)

He was cut off by the sound of explosions. We looked back toward the weapons installation but the trees were too thick to see what was going on.

"Birds. Now." Jake said.

"Please don't tell me you want to go back there," I said. "Please, Jake, I thought you had _some _sanity.

"We're just going to get high enough to see what's going on over there," Jake said, the imprint of peregrine falcon feathers already appearing on his body.

"And then…" I pressed hopefully.

"And the-ghk," Jake said, making the transition from voice to thought-speak. (And then we get the heck out of Dodge.)

"And that is a plan I think we can all live with," I said, then started morphing to osprey.

A few minutes later, two ospreys, a peregrine falcon, a northern harrier, a red-tailed hawk, and a bald eagle took to the skies. All in all, a motley assortment of raptors.

When we got above the trees the clearing where the weapons installation stood came into view. Or more accurately, where the installation had stood. The structure was a burning pile of rubble now. A two more craft had joined the first and they were busy shooting up something out of view on the ground, probably Yeerk stragglers.

(OK, I've seen enough. I'm all for invoking the 'get out of Dodge plan' now,) I said.

(Yeah,) Jake said, a little absently. (Let's get going.)

* * *

(OK, new question,) Cassie said, as we flew toward home. (Is this good or bad?) 

(They did do our job for us,) Tobias said.

(Yeah, and almost killed me in the process,) Rachel grumbled.

(Why would they take out the weapon's installation?) Jake asked. (They must have something against the Yeerks.)

(Everyone has something against the Yeerks,) I said. (Come on, Jake, we've tried the whole 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' bit before. It doesn't work out to well for us.)

(Did I say anything about making friends?)

(No, but I know what you were thinking. You were thinking about going back there to watch those ships and try to divine their intentions, and risking a horrible, horrible death in the process.)

(OK, maybe I wanted to watch them a little more, but we risk dying a horrible death everyday.)

(I really try not to think about that.)

(Uh, guys.) It was Tobias, always observant in the air. (I think you need to see this.)

Tobias' attention was focused back to the ships. They were breaking off from their strafing runs around the Yeerk facility. They all started going up, up, up, and finally disappeared from view.

(OK, so they're definitely spaceships,) I said, (Peachy. As if we didn't have enough alien issues already.)

(Ax?) It was Cassie. (Could those have been Andalite ships? Could they have implemented a new design since you've been gone?)

(I seriously doubt it,) Ax replied. (Those would be a radical design departure from previous Andalite fighters. A redesign like that would take decades. Additionally, it appears far too small to comfortably hold an Andalite.)

(Just thought I'd ask.)

(OK,) Rachel said. (We have an unknown killer alien spacecraft on our hands. Ax doesn't know what it is. There's only one thing to do.)

(Ask Erek,) I said.


	2. The Explanation

**Jake**

We went straight from the Yeerk installation to the home of Erek King, also known as Erek the Chee.

The Chee are a race of androids. They were created eons ago by the Pemalites, a peaceful and advanced race. Because the Pemalites abhorred violence, the Chee were hardwired for pacifism.

The Chee, along with Pemalite survivors of a devastating attack by a race called the Howlers, arrived on Earth thousands of years ago. The Pemalites were blended with wolves to create dogs, and the Chee, aided by advanced holographic force field technology, became part of fledgling human societies.

We landed in Erek's backyard and demorphed. We all rested a moment and let Ax get a hoofful of grass before going up to the sliding glass back door.

I tapped on the door. Erek's "father," in reality a Chee just playing a role, was inside was watching TV in his human hologram, probably because the blinds were up. He glanced up, saw us, and let us in the house. "I'm surprised to see you back so soon," he said. "Hang on, I'll get Erek." Mr. King left the room as Tobias perched on his chair back.

Not for the first time, I was struck by the sheer normalcy of the house. Knick-knacks on the mantle, books on the shelves, family photos on the hutch. It was like any other suburban home. Except it was inhabited by bipedal doglike androids.

Marco had taken a seat on the sofa. "I swear, do they ever turn this TV off? There electricity bill must be exorbitant."

"That's a mighty big word there, Marco," Rachel said dryly.

"Hey, I know lots of big words. I'm not all good looks."

Rachel snorted, picking up the TV remote to change the channel. Before she did, though, Erek, in his human hologram, entered.

On the outside, Erek looks just like a kid my age. Only a few know that he's actually a robot older than the pyramids.

"Hey," he said. "How'd it go?"

"That's it?" Marco asked. "'How'd it go?' No, 'I'm glad you're alright. I happy that you made it through the life-and-death struggle you surely faced?'"

"Shut it, Marco," Rachel said. "You're not the one who almost got shot."

Erek raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I take it that it was harrowing."

(Just a little bit,) Tobias said.

"So what happened to the facility?" Erek asked.

"It blew up," Cassie said.

"What! You destroyed it? That's great! That's more then I hoped for. I would have been happy with you just disabling it."

"I'm so glad you're pleased, Erek, but, alas, the credit is not ours," Marco said.

"What?"

(We did not destroy the facility,) Ax said.

"Then who did?"

"That's what we want to know," I said.

We all explained the circumstances of the weapons installation's destruction and described the alien spaceships. As we did, Erek's face, his holographic face, darkened.

"So," I said in conclusion. "Do these ships ring a bell? Ever seen them before?"

"Unfortunately," Erek sighed. "I have. All of you better get comfortable; this is going to take awhile. And you're not going to like it."

"Erek," Marco said. "We rarely like anything you tell us. I think it's because every time you talk to us, we go on a suicide mission. He paused, slapping his head. "Oh, great, that what this is. It's another suicide mission, isn't it?"

"Just let me explain. Yes, I have seen ships like that. The last time was several thousand years ago."

(Where?) Tobias

Erek sighed. "Here, on Earth."

There was a collective gasp. "These things are thousands of years old?" I asked.

"Let me explain," Erek repeated. "It's a long story."

"When I was posing as a slave in ancient Egypt, the region, and most of the planet, was ruled by a being who called himself Ra, the Egyptian sun god. Physically, he looked human, but there was no way he could have been human. He had technology that to this day makes human technology look insignificant. In fact, it probably rivaled Andalite technology.

Ax gave a sort.

"Ra ruled through fear. He had large armies that kept the populace under control, making sure they worshipped him as a god. His troops were designed to instill terror. They were, for lack of a better term, a 'breed' of human called Jaffa. They wore massive helmets that were designed after Egyptian deities. They wielded long staffs that were actually powerful energy weapons.

"Ra's Jaffa were supported from the air by the ships you described. He called them 'death gliders.' If a group got too out of line, Ra just had to sic the gliders on them.

"We tried many times to get in Ra's inner circle, to discover what he was and what we could do about him. We never had any luck.

"Apparently, though, people grew tired of living under Ra and his Jaffa stormtroopers. A full scale revolt was organized, and entire nations went up in full rebellion. It started with sticks and stones, but soon humans were armed with the weapons of fallen Jaffa and overwhelmed Ra's forces. Ra himself bailed. He left the planet in a massive pyramid-shaped spaceship. We don't know where he went.

"After Ra left and the remaining Jaffa were put down, the last thing the people did was bury a massive stone ring. The Chee had no idea what the ring was, or if it had any function, but the humans regarded it as a symbol of Ra's power and wanted it gone. After that, human history pretty much settled down to what you study in school."

I was floored. Humanity suffered through an alien occupation thousands of years ago? It was unimaginable. I glanced around at the others. They seemed to be having pretty much the same reaction. Cassie's, Rachel's, and Marco's jaws hung open. Tobias' hawk eyes were as big as I had ever seen them. Ax was the only one who didn't seem to be in shock. He looked more irritated at Erek calling millennia-old technology on par with that of the Andalites.

"So" Cassie said, the first to speak. "Ra's come back?"

"Him, or a friend of his," Erek said. "Either way we're in trouble."

* * *

To AllOrNone- Congrats! You were the first one to guess it. Have a cookie and pat yourself on the back. 


	3. The Mission

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They are encouraging and constructive criticism is welcome

Oh, yeah. I still don't own Animorphs, and I don't own the Stargate universe either. That's MGM's.

* * *

**Cassie**

After we got over the initial shock at hearing that Earth had spent time as part of some alien's empire thousands of years ago, Erek gave us some more detailed information about Ra.

"We don't know if it was something in his physiology, or something artificial, but Ra had extraordinary longevity," Erek was saying. "He ruled for thousands of years."

(Are you sure it was the same guy?) Tobias asked.

"Positive," Erek said. "What's more, his Jaffa were no slouches in the health and vitality department themselves. Healthcare and sanitation in Egypt then was not what it is today, but the Jaffa never got sick, and anything short of a fatal injury was healed within a couple of days or so."

"So now in addition to the Yeerks, we have immortal, fast healing aliens who think their gods to contend with," I said.

"Is there any way you can track these death gliders?" Jake asked. "Find out where they're coming from."

"I wish there was, but no." Erek said. "Even if we could, I don't know what could be done at this point. The death gliders have to be coming from space. A landed ship like Ra's would stick out a bit."

"So we're helpless?" Rachel said. "I don't like helpless."

"None of us do," I told her. "But at this point what can we do?"

* * *

A week later the six Animorphs were gathered in my barn. The incident with the death gliders had not been forgotten, but to us the Yeerks were the more immediate matter. 

The Yeerks had seemed to put the glider incident behind them as well. Erek had told us the Yeerk higher-ups weren't mentioning the attack, and were going ahead with previously scheduled operations. According to Erek, this meant that the Yeerks either knew the gliders were no threat, or were terrified of them and didn't want to create a panic.

Erek had told us the Yeerks were planning to infest a U.S. Senator, who was the running mate for a presidential candidate, when he came through the town on a fundraising tour. They had an elaborate plan in place where the senator would be taken to local manufacturer that was making sizeable campaign contributions, actually a front for a manufacturer of dracon beams and Bug Fighter components, and infested from a portable Yeerk pool.

Our plan, too, was elaborate. It involved quietly infiltrating the Yeerk facility, acquiring human-Controllers who worked there, and then quietly leading the senator out.

As Marco was quick to point out, our elaborate plans generally collapse into bloody melees.

Now we were in my barn hashing out the last minute details. The operation would require us to go small; fly morphs were the order of the day. Ax had told us as long as we stayed away from the Yeerk production area, we probably didn't need to worry about Gleet Bio-Filters.

"How probably?" Marco had asked.

After we got inside, we would subdue some Controllers, acquire them, lock them up in a storage closet, and set out to rescue the senator.

Easy, right?

We would see.

The flight to the facility was uneventful. Erek had told us when the senator was due, so we departed so we would get to the company a few minutes before the senator did. In fact, we saw his motorcade on the way.

We were all in our pre-potential-battle roles as we flew toward the company. Marco was complaining and Rachel was complaining about his complaining. Tobias was keeping an eye on the skies. Ax was silent, only speaking when someone addressed him. On the way, I had a thought.

(What if death gliders show up again?)

Marco's and Rachel's bickering stopped dead. (Then that… would be bad,) Marco said hesitantly.

(Oh, brilliant insight, Marco,) Rachel said.

I glanced at Jake. He looked back at me. I know raptor expressions can't convey emotion, but I swear Jake looked worried. And the way he looked at me told me he wasn't worried about himself.

(If the glider's show up, I want you to bail,) he said. (I'll stay to keep an eye on them.)

(Jake, did you hear anything Erek said?) Marco asked. (We can't work with these guys!)

(No, but maybe we can use them. They seem to have a beef against the Yeerks.)

(It is more likely that the Yeerks simply pose a bigger obstacle to their conquest of Earth than the humans,) Ax said.

(We are not leaving you there if the gliders show up, Jake,) I said.

(Let's worry about this if the gliders even show up,) Rachel said. (We're here.)

We had arrived at a rather inconspicuous office building, part of a larger industrial compound dominated by a large factory. The complex was a little ways outside of town. It was surrounded by dense trees, and one lone road led to it. The sign of the office building read "Universal Manufacturers."

(Fitting,) I said.

(Cliché,) Marco retorted. (The Yeerks are so uncreative. I mean, come on, if they really wanted to throw us 'Andalite bandits' off, they would have named it 'Picture Frames, Inc.' or something.)

We landed among the trees outside the industrial complex and demorphed, since the Yeerks likely had surveillance in the immediate vicinity of the office and factory. We all morphed fly except for Tobias, who we got on to fly back to the office building.

Tobias informed us of an open window on the first floor of the building. (There's a guy working in there, but he has his back to the window.)

Tobias flew low over the building and we let go of his feathers. We initially tumbled a bit as tried to orient ourselves.

(Alright, there's the window,) Jake said. (Let's go.)

Getting inside was easy. Finding our way around was not. The interior of the building was a maze of hallways, offices, and cubicles.

The plan, vague like most of our plans, was to get to an unoccupied closet, bathroom, office, or something and wait for a person to walk by. Ax would knock him unconscious with his tail and someone would acquire him. The plan called for two people to be in human morph while the others stayed small in case things got ugly.

It seemed we had underestimated the health of the economy. All of the offices were occupied, and everything else was too small for us all to demorph in.

(This operation's already going bad,) Marco said.

(That's OK,) Rachel said. (We can improvise.)

(Oh, yeah, that makes me feel better. Rachel, when we improvise, people die.)

(Only if they get in our way.)

While Marco and Rachel were bickering, I heard voices coming from the front of the building.

"It's on honor for you to be here, Senator."

"Well, it's a pleasure."

(Shoot! Guys, the senator is here,) I said. (If we're going to improvise, we need to do it pretty quick!)

(Alright, we need to get him out of here now,) Jake said. (Tobias, can you here me?)

(Loud and clear. The senator just arrived. His entourage is coming through the front door.)

(Is the door still open?)

(Yep.)

(Good. We need a distraction).

A moment later I heard a "TSEEEEEEER" and then several frantic voices. People started leaving offices and rushing toward the front door, some muttering about "cursed Andalite bandits."

(Alright, this office is emptied out,) Jake said. (Everyone in and demorph, then get into battle morphs.)

We crowded into the office and demorphed. Before we could remorph, however, we heard a familiar sound. Suddenly we heard explosions coming from the direction of the manufacturing facility.

"Please don't tell me that's what I think it is," Marco said.

I ran to the window. "Death gliders! They're destroying the factory!"

(Jake,) we all heard Tobias. (You guys need to get here now. The Yeerks know time's up here and they're trying to forcefully infest the senator. They're tying him up now. I can't stop them.)

(Are you OK?)

(After the gliders showed up the Yeerks dropped all subtlety around the senator and took out their dracon beams. I bailed. A few singed feathers, but I'm OK.)

(Battle morphs,) Jake said. (Now.)

I concentrated on the wolf DNA inside of me. The first thing to come was the fur. Grey fur sprouted all over my body. Then the tail sprouted out of my backside as my face bulged outward to form the wolf's muzzle. I dropped down on all forms as the morph concluded. Around me, Jake was going tiger, Marco gorilla, and Rachel grizzly bear. Ax stayed in his Andalite body.

(Alright, everybody,) Jake said. (Move out.)

Our timing couldn't have been better. We barreled out of the office right in front of a group of seven people who were dragging a bound and gagged man- the senator- to the back of the building.

"Andalites!" the lead man hissed in fury. "This is not a good time!" An explosion from the factory punctuated his words.

(It never is, Yeerk,) Ax said, knocking the man unconscious with the blunt side of his tail blade.

The other Controllers raised their dracon beams. I was on the closest one before he could fire, biting his arm until the dracon beam dropped to the floor. I then tackled him, throwing him to the floor.

Rachel threw two Controllers against the wall. One slumped to the ground, unconscious, while the other one frantically groped around for his fallen dracon beam. One hand found the weapon, and Ax's blade promptly removed it.

The other three Controllers managed to get shots off. Tobias rocketed across the hall, raking one man's face and causing him to drop the weapon. The other two continued firing. One shot hit Rachel in the shoulder. She roared in pain and rage and threw a door at the Controller. That's right, she ripped an office door off its hinges and threw it at the Controller. The door hit him square in the chest with a loud crack, and the Controller went down.

Jake lunged at the remaining human-Controller, pinning him to the ground. Before he could do anything else, Marco, who had the human-Controller whom I had tackled in a headlock after the man had thrown me off of him, noticed something.

(Uh, guys, there's some Hork-Bajir coming right at us,) he said. (And they don't look happy.)

We all looked back down the hall to see three Hork-Bajir coming at us. Just then, the death gliders started firing on the office building.

(Marco! Grab the senator! We're getting out of here!) Jake said.

The bound and gagged senator cowered as Marco approached him. When the gorilla picked him up and slung him over the shoulder, he struggled against his restraints and yelled incoherently from behind the gag.

(Hey!) Marco said. (Chill! We're good guys!)

As we started running down the hall in the opposite direction of the Hork-Bajir and, hopefully, the death gliders, the senator seemed to relax. Either he realized we truly were saving him, or he had fainted. Either way he was staying still.

We exited the office building into chaos. People we're running everywhere in a panic on the lawn outside as three death gliders shot up the office building and the factory behind it. Amid the confusion of attacking aliens, who weren't Yeerks, anyway, no one paid us much heed.

No one except the Hork-Bajir from whom we had been fleeing, that is.

We had almost forgotten about them, and they tried to take us by surprise, but Ax was watching our rear with his stalk eyes.

(Hork-Bajir!)

We all turned to face the threat, but Jake issued an order. (Marco, get the senator out of here! Cassie and Tobias, go with him! The rest of us will hold off the Hork-Bajir.)

There wasn't any time to argue. Marco, Tobias, and I took off, Marco with the senator still slumped over his soldier. As we ran through the mass of panicking people, Controllers began to notice us. A lunge from me or a swipe by Tobias kept us going.

We had cleared the factory compound and were almost at the trees when there was an enormous explosion. We turned to look to see the office building going up in a huge fireball.

(No!) I cried. (Jake! Rachel! Ax! Can you hear me?)

I waited. No response.

(Come on guys!) Marco yelled.

(We're coming,) we heard a slightly exhausted sounding Jake. I could see a grizzly, a tiger, and an Andalite coming toward us across the lawn, their fur singed and smoking, attacking anyone who got in their way.

When they had caught us, Jake explained. (Ax noticed a glider coming right at us; we got out the way just as it fired. It must have hit something important.) He noticed the guy slung over Marco's shoulder. (You can put him down for a sec, man.)

Marco gently set the senator down. He stared at us wide-eyed as Ax removed his restraints.

"What in God's name is going on!" he blurted out as soon as his gag was removed. "Who are you? What are you? And who were they?" He looked back toward the burning factory complex, where the death gliders were lazily strafing people on the ground. Suddenly a new sound. Two more ships came into view from behind the clouds. These resembled the death gliders, except they were more angular, like a stealth aircraft, and had two vertical stabilizers on the rear. To our surprise, the new crafts engaged the death gliders, making short work of them not with energy weapons, but with missiles. After the three gliders were destroyed, the two craft sped off.

(Ooooooh-K,) Rachel said. (And who are they?)

The senator, meanwhile, was staring wide-eyed at the whole spectacle. When he finally spoke, it was one word.

"Goa'uld."


	4. The Revelation

Some of the reviews have had (constructive!) criticism of my claim of Goa'uld superiority compared to the Andalites and Yeerks. Well, after going back, checking out a few websites, rereading a few Animorph books, and watching a few SG-1 DVDs, I concluded that this probably wasn't accurate and so made a few (very slight) changes in the previous chapters. The new version has Andalite and Goa'uld technology roughly on par with one another (at least from Erek's point of view).

This brings me to another point. I didn't go into this fic with the ending in mind like I did with "Great War." My idea for the first chapter was pretty specific, but the rest is just kind of flowing, so some inconsistencies will exist.

Oh, yeah. This story takes place early Season 7 in the Stargate SG-1 continuity.

And now, without further adieu-

* * *

**Ax**

"Goa'uld"

The senator said the word, one with which I was not familiar, very softly. I looked at my friends; they were gazing intently at the senator, who was in turn on his knees and staring at the burning Yeerk factory, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Prince Jake, in tiger morph, quietly approached the man.

(Senator?) Jake said tentatively.

The senator came out of his reverie with a start, turning to look directly at Prince Jake. This appeared to frighten him even more, which was understandable, given the nature and appearance of Bengal tigers. He backed quickly away from Prince Jake, right into Marco, in gorilla morph. With a yelp, he jumped to his feet and ran beyond our group.

"I don't know you who-what you are, but if you hurt me, I assure you there will be consequences."

Marco rolled his eyes, a human expression of annoyance or exasperation, and quite odd to see on a gorilla. It seemed he was about to speak, but Prince Jake spoke up first.

(No one here wants to hurt you, Senator,) Jake said. (We're trying to protect you.)

"Protect me?" The senator snorted. "I have my own ways to secure my protection, especially from the Goa'uld."

(Now listen here, Mr. Big Shot Politician, we just saved you from getting your brain-) Rachel started fuming, but was silenced by a look from Jake.

(What's a Goa'uld?)

The Senator sat in stoic silence now, refusing to say anything.

I spoke up. (I am going to assume that these Goa'uld are the ones that operate the craft that destroyed this facility. If that is true, than Earth is facing a second alien invasion.)

That got the man's attention. "Second?" He paused. "Oh my god! You! You're some of Hammond's mistakes, let out of the gate!"

(Whoa! Whoa! Chill!) It was Marco. (We're good guys. We're trying to save people like you from getting an earful of Yeerk.)

"Yeerk?"

**Tobias**

We explained the situation to the senator, Robert Kinsey. We explained the Andalites, the Yeerks, and Visser Three and the invasion. Of course we left out the part that we were just a superpowered gang of teenagers, but that should go without saying.

He took it rather well, all things considered, but then if he knew what was in those death gliders he was involved in some pretty weird stuff himself. When we were done he asked us one rather bizarre question.

"What's the address of your world?"

I cocked my head. (The address of our…world?)

Kinsey looked around at us. "Never mind. If you don't know-_ or won't tell me," _I heard him mutter under his breath, "it doesn't matter for now. I need to get back to my hotel and then to Washington."

(Uh, that's a no can do,) Marco said. (The Yeerks will be looking for you now.)

Ax nodded, a human gesture he had picked up. (You escaped from them with a good look at their dracon beam weapons and a portable Yeerk Pool. You are now a significant liability to them, and they likely won't bother to try to infest you again. They will probably just kill you.)

Kinsey looked back at the still burning factory, then up at the sky. "Then I need to get to Colorado."

**Rachel**

(What's in Colorado?) Jake asked.

Kinsey looked down at him. "You're the tiger, right? Well I have some friends in Colorado. Any alien invasions, they'll be the ones to talk to." He muttered something else that sounded like "_and blame_."

(These friends might be infested.) I said.

"If they were than this invasion would already be over," Kinsey replied.

(OK, then,) Jake said. (You can find a way to Colorado, but we're coming with you.)

I stared at him. (We're _what?_ Jake we're needed here.)

(If this is a chance to let Uncle Sam in on the Yeerk invasion, we have to take it.) Jake replied. (One senator can be taken down easily, but if the larger government, or the military, can be alerted, we might have a fighting chance.)

I had to admit, that made sense. (OK, then lets go to Colorado.) I turned to Kinsey.

"I'll have to make a phone call," he said.

**Tobias**

A short while later, a rather scruffy looking homeless guy approached a pay phone in a bad neighborhood. The senator had wanted to use his cell phone, but we convinced him that it may be tapped. Instead we found him a ratty disguise to hide himself and his face, allowing him to find a phone in town.

Kinsey hadn't let us overtly listen in on his conversation. Something about top secret stuff and needing clearance and national security.

This had not pleased Rachel. (We just informed you of an alien invasion, buddy. I think we've earned whatever clearance we need.)

Kinsey didn't budge, though. That was OK, since the others, when Kinsey wasn't looking, of course, just morphed to fly and took up positions throughout his clothing. I took up a perch on a nearby building.

Sen. Kinsey punched a whole bunch of numbers into the phone, presumably extensions and security codes, before getting who he wanted.

It's widely known that hawks have excellent vision, but its slightly less known that they also have great hearing. I could hear everything the senator said.

"What in God's name is going on over there, George?" Kinsey hissed. Pause "You know damn well what I mean. Dispatching F-302s close to a populated area…George, what were you thinking!" Pause. "And how did those gliders slip under your nose." Pause. "What do you mean nothing's been detected in orbit, there's got to be-" Pause. "Alright never mind, never mind, there's another matter to discuss." Pause. "Oh, I think you know what I'm talking about." Pause. "Blue centaurs. Talking, telepathic animals. Slugs. Am I ringing any bells, General?" Pause. "No? Well there's some weird alien activity out here, I met them, and I'm willing to bet it came out of your mountain!" Pause. "I don't care what you've been doing, General." Pause. "You can be certain that when I get back to Washington I'll have a few things to say to certain…influential people." Pause. "That'll have to wait, because I'm coming out there now." Pause. "Yes I know I'm campaigning, but some things are more important- What was that?" Pause. "Just know that I'm coming out there and I expect a plane waiting for me." Kinsey then proceeded to give "Gen. George" the name of a small airstrip on the outskirts of town. Shrewd of him, since low profile was what we wanted.

I spotted the others leaving Sen. Kinsey's clothes after he hung up. They would go somewhere to morph to birds, and then meet Kinsey back in the woods. Kinsey himself, with some furtive looks around him, walked off where he would rendezvous with the Animorphs.

**Jake**

The plane ride went off without a hitch. The plane, a small unmarked business jet was waiting at a little community airport that mostly handled private planes. Kinsey had changed back into his politician's finest before getting on, so as not to elicit questions from the Air Force crew. We followed Kinsey onboard as flies, demorphing and remorphing as needed in an unoccupied compartment in the back.

During the flight, we went over what we overheard of Kinsey's phone call.

(It seems that the government has its hand in some alien happenings,) I said.

(But it didn't seem like the guy Kinsey was talking to knew about the Yeerks.) Cassie said.

(They talked about detecting gliders,) Tobias put in, (so he must know about the…what was it? Ghouls? Golds?)

(Goa'uld,) Ax said. (And I would like to know how the human race has achieved contact with a race we Andalites know nothing about.)

(Well, Ax-man, space is a big place,) Marco said.

(And we have traveled throughout it, but have never encountered these Goa'uld.)

(Maybe they're from another dimension?)

Ax scoffed, not realizing Marco was joking. (Interdimensional travel beyond the realms of normal space and zero space is purely theoretical at this point, even among Andalites. Some, in fact, believe it to be impossible altogether. The amount of energy required to stabilize a dimensional shift to a different physical-)

Before Ax realized that he had totally left our feeble human minds in the dust, the pilot announced that we were landing at Peterson Air Force Base.

(Where is Peterson Air Force Base?) Cassie asked.

It was Marco who answered. (It's near Colorado Springs. It's the home of NORAD, Northern Command, and the Air Force Space Command.)

(Marco, how on Earth do you know that?) Rachel asked.

(The History Channel.)

When the plane landed, the senator stepped out, closely followed by six flies. We were greeted by a guy in his mid-fifties, short graying hair, and wearing a blue utility uniform. He was standing next to an unmarked black Yukon and giving Kinsey a rather sardonic grin.

Kinsey halted in his tracks. "O'Neill," he sneered.


	5. The Arrival

**Ax**

Senator Kinsey glared at the human he called O'Neill. Even with my lack of experience judging human emotions and expressions, I suspected there was little goodwill between the two men.

"Mr. Starsky," Kinsey greeted the human. "Or were you Hutch? I never can remember."

This puzzled me. Had the senator not just called the man greeting him "O'Neill?" Perhaps O'Neill was a title? Before I could ask one of my friends about it, the human called either Starsky, Hutch, or O'Neill spoke.

"Geez, Kinsey," he said to the senator. "I barge into your house one time using that alias and you never let me forget it. Give it a rest, will ya?" That answered the question of what his actual name was.

"Don't forget you were with a convicted traitor," Kinsey replied.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." O'Neill waved the comment aside. "Now what is this about? What brings you to our little slice of heaven here at the SGC?"

"Don't tell me you don't know, Colonel"

"All I know is that Hammond got a phone call from you that both puzzled him and pissed him off." O'Neill paused, looking around vaguely. "You seem to do that a lot."

"Call Hammond?"

"Piss him off."

Kinsey looked exasperated. "Can we just get to the SGC?"

"What's the rush? I kinda like catching up with you." O'Neill paused and pursed his lips. "Wait, you know what? On second thought, I don't. Get in," O'Neill said getting into the driver's side of the vehicle.

"What happened to catching up?" Kinsey asked, getting into the passenger's side.

"I remembered you're a son of a bitch."

I was taken aback. No Andalite military officer would dare speak to an elected official in such a way. He would be instantly stripped of his rank and quite possibly exiled.

As we followed the two men into the vehicle, Marco spoke. (Oh, yeah, these guys are pals. Nothing but love.)

I suspected his remark was sarcasm; I am getting quite adept at recognizing it.

(It is true that these men dislike each other,) I said. Then, so the senator could hear me, I continued. (But they are going to help us alert the military to the Yeerk invasion.)

Kinsey gave a barely perceptible nod.

**Jake**

As we drove to whatever the SGC was, we traveled through several security checkpoints; the senator and colonel dutifully showed their IDs at each one. After getting through one particularly fortified checkpoint, the road went straight into the mountainside, into the gaping mouth of a large tunnel.

Marco spoke up. (This must be Cheyenne Mountain. It's the home of NORAD.)

(You get that from the History Channel, too?) Rachel said, amused.

(What? Modern Marvels is a really cool show.)

(What can you tell us about the place?) I asked Marco.

(Um, other than housing NORAD, not much. Let's see-)

(I thought you watched the History Channel,) Rachel interrupted.

(I watched it. I never said I paid a great deal of attention. I may have dozed off once or twice.)

(Just tell us what you can,) Cassie said.

(Let's see, the whole place is deep underground. It has huge blast doors, shock absorbers, the works. Can pretty much handle all but a direct nuclear strike. NORAD handles the tracking of whatever might be in North American airspace, specifically missiles.)

(Any thing else down there?) Cassie asked. (From what we overheard from the senator I don't think he was talking about missile tracking.)

(Nothing I know of,) Marco replied. (Must be the SGC.)

(But what is the SGC?) Ax asked.

(Like I know. That's just where Kinsey said we were going, right? It must be in the mountain; there's only one road in and out.)

I thought about asking Kinsey about the SGC, but he wouldn't have been able to reply without appearing to talk to the windshield, which probably wasn't a good idea with the colonel right there. He probably wouldn't have told me even if he could, anyway.

We came to a stop in what seemed to be a small motor pool, but it was hard to tell anything with the low light and the fly's already screwy eyesight.

We stayed close to the colonel and Kinsey as they walked through an enormous blast door after showing their IDs to an airman. O'Neill swiped his ID card through a device on the wall and a moment later a door opened to an elevator.

Once inside, O'Neill pushed the button for level 11, the lowest level.

Kinsey and O'Neill spent the elevator ride in silence, with the senator glaring at O'Neill and the colonel nonchalantly gazing at the nondescript metal walls.

After unloading on level 11, we passed yet more security and got on yet another elevator, this one bound for level 28.

"So, are you going tell why you're here now?" O'Neill asked as the elevator descended past level 14.

"I'll think I'll save that for when I see Hammond," Kinsey replied. "Suffice it to say that I may finally be able to do something about the mismanagement here."

"Mismanagement? For God's sake, Kinsey, you've had _Thor_ tell you to keep Hammond! If that's not a glowing endorsement, I don't know what is!"

"I know you have something of a friendship with Commander Thor-" Kinsey began.

O'Neill interrupted him. "That's _Supreme_ Commander Thor to you," he said, raising a finger.

Kinsey glowered. "Despite your friendship with _Supreme_ Commander Thor, I trust myself more than a little grey alien ten thousand light years away."

The others and I were discussing what we were going how we were going to communicate with powers that be in the base when Kinsey's statement caught our attention in a rather big way.

(Little grey aliens?)

(Ten thousand light years?)

Now, we deal with aliens all the time, and we had suspected that Kinsey and his contacts knew something about aliens, but for whatever reason, hearing a United States senator and a colonel in the United States Air Force calmly discuss aliens in an elevator in a secret underground base drove the strangeness of this situation home. More than that, it told us that Earth, or at least this snarky colonel, had alien friends who _weren't_ Andalites.

As the elevator door opened on level 28, we had no idea what we were truly getting involved in.

* * *

And another chapter! I'm having fun writing this. I hope people are having fun reading it! 

On another note, I did find the relationship between O'Neill and Kinsey a little hard to write and I'm still hammering out the kinks in it. I'm afraid that here it came off as being too similar to the love-hate relationship between O'Neill and Maybourne. Oh, well, something to work on.


	6. The Briefing

And now for some exposition and plot development. And the seemingly obligatory Marco-Ax-Minutes joke. Sorry if it's a little boring.

* * *

**Rachel**

We got off the elevator into a drab concrete hallway, with various conduits along the ceiling and metal doors dispersed at more or less regular intervals, most of them requiring a card to enter.

(This place could definitely use some more color,) Marco said. (I see…curtains. And wall-to-wall shag carpet.)

I ignored him, opting instead to speak to Ax. (How are we on time?)

Andalites have a very accurate innate time sense. (We have approximately 55 of your minutes left in morph,) Ax replied.

(Ax, how many times do I have to tell you? They're my minutes. They're your minutes. They are everyone's minutes!) Marco exclaimed.

Ax was unfazed. (Now we have 54 minutes.)

We followed O'Neill and Kinsey down a maze of corridors before entering what appeared to be a conference room. There was a long table in the center of the room. Two of the walls were dominated by windows, but with my fly vision I couldn't tell what they looked out on. Across the room was a door, which probably led into whatever room the smaller window had a view of.

Four people sat at one end of the table. The other Animorphs and I discreetly buzzed around, taking them in.

On one side sat a woman, probably mid to late 30s, with short blond hair. She was wearing the same blue utility uniform as the colonel. Across from her was a guy, also in his 30s, with short brown hair and wearing glasses. His outfit was similar to the colonel's and the woman's, except his was army green. Next to him was a big black guy. He was bald, and had what looked like a very weird tattoo in the middle of his forehead. He shirked the utility uniform that the others wore in favor of a simple black t-shirt and drab green cargo pants. At the head of the table was the only guy in what looked like a normal military uniform. As I took note of the bald, slightly chubby guy's appearance, Marco noted something else.

(This guy must be in charge. See those stars on his shoulders. He's a general.)

(More History Channel?) I asked.

(Nope. _Patton_.)

This general must have been the George that Kinsey had spoken to on the phone. He noticed me and brushed me aside with a wave of his hand. I tumbled a bit but quickly regained equilibrium. The others and I buzzed down to the empty end of the table.

No one at the table seemed excited to see the senator. Blondie, Glasses and General George all looked frustrated. Tattoo just raised an eyebrow on an otherwise expressionless face. They didn't do any of the stuff I thought military officers were supposed to do when greeting politicians, like stand up or salute. Maybe that was reserved for the president.

The general gruffly greeted the two men with a nod. "Senator, Colonel, please have a seat." After O'Neill had greeted everyone and taken a seat next to Blondie, and Kinsey next to O'Neill, the general continued.

"First things first, Senator. How did you even know about the deployment of the F-302s? Don't tell me you were at that factory?"

"Yes, General, I was. What were you thinking? You could have exposed one of the most top secret weapons in the world."

"Would you rather the Goa'uld go public, Senator?" the General retorted. "I stand by what was done."

"Do you even have a cover story?" the Senator asked.

The woman spoke up. "The Air Force is saying that the death gliders and the 302s were out of control prototype attack UAVs that had been in a training exercise."

"And what about the Goa'uld, Major Carter?" Kinsey said. "There's a probably a System Lord in orbit right now. What are you doing about him?"

"Well at this point, sir, there's not much we can do," the woman- Major Carter- said. "The Goa'uld, whoever it is, is staying out of sight. He's keeping his distance and keeping himself cloaked."

"We could launch Prometheus. Couldn't it could detect the gliders as they left the mothership's cloak?" Kinsey said.

Glasses chimed in. "Unfortunately, uh, Prometheus is undergoing some maintenance. They're still tinkering with that Al'kesh hyperdrive they had to jury-rig into the ship."

(Are you listening to this?) Marco said. (Top secret weapons? System Lords? Hyperdrives? Motherships?) He chuckled nervously. (Well, Ax, what do you think of the human race now?)

(I do not know what to think,) Ax said, sounding honestly bewildered. I couldn't blame him.

O'Neill was speaking. "Prometheus is always getting maintenance. Honestly, if it were a car I'd have traded it in by now. What's the mileage on it? Hundred, two-hundred thousand light years? What can we get for that?"

Kinsey rolled his eyes but went on. "How did this Goa'uld even get here without our knowledge, anyway? Isn't it your job to keep track of them?"

"Most of our intel on Goa'uld movements comes from the Tok'ra," the general said. "They gave us no prior indication of a System Lord being on the way. We contacted them a few days ago and they said that none of their agents had known of any Goa'uld operations against Earth. They were just as surprised as we were."

O'Neill spoke, looking up from the pen he was lazily twirling. "Maybe it's some upstart. You know, trying to make his place in the galaxy. A Goa'uld's gotta start somewhere. Right, Teal'c?"

Tattoo raised an eyebrow again, looking faintly amused. "It is possible, O'Neill. However, the tactics of this Goa'uld are unlike those of any I have previously encountered."

"You mean he hasn't given us the whole 'grovel before your god or be destroyed' bit?" Glasses said. "I noticed that."

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson," Tattoo- Teal'c- went on. "It is most unusual for a Goa'uld to come to a world without demanding complete obedience or simply scorching the planet. This one is acting methodically, almost seeming to make surgical strikes."

"Whatever," Kinsey said. "I don't care what his M.O. is. He's a Goa'uld. He shouldn't be anywhere near this planet. And I don't see what the big problem with sending Prometheus up. It doesn't need the hyperdrive for operations in Earth's orbit."

"It does if the hyperdrive's unstable," Glasses, whose name was apparently Daniel Jackson, said.

Kinsey paused, looking around the room. "Fine, whatever, I don't care how you get the Goa'uld, just get him. Now moving on-"

"Whoa, 'moving on?' O'Neill interrupted. "Senator Robert Kinsey 'moving on' from berating SG-1? Who are you and what have you done with the real Kinsey?"

Kinsey raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I'm still going to point out your inability to defend this planet, just from someone else."

"I take it this is about the 'talking animals' and 'blue centaurs' you were going on about over the phone?" the general said.

(Hey! They're talking about us!) Marco exclaimed. (It's about time.)

(Should we demorph, Jake?) Cassie asked.

(Not just yet,) Jake replied. (I want to hear what Kinsey says, first.)

Kinsey glanced around the room, probably looking for us, before answering the general. "I probably should start at the beginning. I was making a campaign stop at Universal Manufacturers when I was attacked."

"By these…creatures?" O'Neill asked.

"No. My attackers were human. My _rescuers_, however, were the menagerie from hell."

(_Excuse_ me?) I blurted. ('The menagerie from hell?' We saved his sorry butt! Does he even remember that we're right here?)

Kinsey continued. "My human attackers had bound me and were dragging me god knows where when a hawk started dive bombing them. Right after that a bear, a gorilla, a tiger, a wolf, and…and an _alien_ barged in and started tearing up the place. The gorilla grabbed me and we took off with more aliens in pursuit."

"Do you know who the humans were or why they attacked you," Jackson asked.

Kinsey hesitated before replying. "They had some kind of energy weapons. They were probably rogue NID with a chip on their shoulders."

"You put a chip on everybody's shoulder, Kinsey," Col. O'Neill said.

"Regardless, I couldn't help but notice that the aliens showed up _after _the Goa'uld started attacking."

"You think the Goa'uld have found some pals?" O'Neill said.

"It's a little odd to encounter all those aliens at the same time, isn't it, Colonel? Tell me, has anything come through the gate that I need to know about?"

"Wait," said Carter. "You think these things came through the stargate?"

"Well, that's were most of our alien problems come from, Major." Kinsey replied.

As the officers and Kinsey argued about aliens and gates, we mulled over the situation.

(What's Kinsey talking about?) Tobias said. (We told Kinsey that those guys at the factory were Yeerks. We explained almost everything to him! Why is he lying?)

(Jake,) Cassie said, (I think we need to demorph, or at least let Ax demorph. We need to get our say in.)

(You're right,) Jake replied. (Ax-)

(Hold on,) Marco said. (I think we need to wait until after Kinsey's gone. He can't be trusted. I mean, listen to him. He's obviously trying to spin this situation to his advantage.)

Marco had an excellent point. Kinsey wasn't just putting his own spin on the story. He was downright lying. And after the 'menagerie from hell' comment there could be no doubt.

Senator Robert Kinsey was going to be a problem.

* * *

And the plot thickens. Into a thick, gooey paste, like oatmeal. Eat up! 

And thanks for the great reviews everyone. I hope I can continue to deliver a quality work.


	7. The Call

To GriffonSpade, thanks for bringing up Ax's omission in the previous chapter. I don't know how I (or my proofreader) missed that. So embarrassing! I've updated Chapter 6 to fix that little oversight.

And now for the longest chapter yet!

Update 7/19/05: I've made a few slight tweaks to this chapter to correct a few grammar mistakes and hopefully clear up a few things.

* * *

**Cassie**

As we listened to the double-dealing senator argue with the Air Force officers, Ax spoke up.

(We have approximately 10 minutes left in morph,) he said. (I suggest we locate a secure place to demorph.)

(I don't want to go too far,) Jake said. (I want to hear what these people have to say to Kinsey.)

(The room right next to us, the one with the little window,) Rachel said. (It looks dark. We'd be safe as long as we stayed away from the window.)

(Alright,) Jake said. (Let's go.)

We buzzed away from the argument in the conference room and squeezed under the closed door to the next room. Jake, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, and I landed on the ground directly below the window and demorphed. Ax demorphed right in front of the door, directly to our right.

The room that we had demorphed in was obviously someone's office; it probably belonged to the general in the next room. There was a large desk in the center of the room, perpendicular to the door. Behind that was a hutch, on which rested various knickknacks. I couldn't get a good look at them in the dim light. On the wall across from the desk was a small chest.

"OK," Jake said after a moment. "So what do we know?"

"Kinsey's lying, for one," I said.

(You think he's a Controller? That the Yeerks actually managed to infest him?) Tobias asked.

"Nah, he's just being a typical politician," Marco said, resting his head on the wall and stretching his legs out in front of him. "They lie. They try to control the situation. It's what they do."

"Alright, Kinsey's lying," I said. "We figured that out. But there's something huge going on here. It sounds like the U.S. Air Force has a space ship."

"That Prometheus thing they were talking about?" Marco said. "Yeah, they were saying something about a hyperdrive?"

(They have been watching too much of your science fiction television,) Ax said. (It must be a term for a new, at least for humans, chemical propulsion system.)

"Why do you say that?" I asked Ax.

(It could not possibly be a faster-than-light propulsion system, as your movies and television programs present such a thing,) the Andalite replied. (Zero-space is the only feasible method of faster-than-light travel.)

"Who's to say they're not the same thing?" Rachel asked.

Ax was silent.

(There's also the stargate thing they were talking about,) Tobias said, getting us back on track. (They seemed to bring it up a lot.)

"I have no idea what that could be," Jake said. "I mean, Kinsey seemed to connect it with aliens and outer space, but it didn't sound like a ship or anything. Any ideas? Ax?"

(I do not know what this stargate could be, Prince Jake, but I seriously doubt it to be a starship or any method of space travel,) Ax said, still sounding peeved about the hyperdrive. (Though it could be a probe, I suppose. Or some as yet uninitiated government project.)

"I think we need to contact Erek," Jake said. "Let him in on what's going on."

"How?" I asked.

"I can see a phone on the desk."

"You're going to use some general's phone to call Erek?" Marco asked incredulously. "Are you nuts?"

"You got a better idea?"

"No, but you're still nuts."

Jake crawled to the space between the desk and the hutch behind it and carefully peered over the top of the desk. The phone sat on the left side of the desk. Jake grabbed it and brought it to the floor with him. It was a typical office phone with about a hundred speed dials. Speed-dial "1" was labeled "Granddaughters." The Pentagon was number "2."

"At least this guy has got his priorities straight," I said. "But is it really a good idea to be using that, Jake? I mean this is top secret base. Wouldn't the calls be monitored?"

"I don't know," Jake admitted. "Maybe not from the boss' phone. And besides, wouldn't the Chee's secure number bypass all that?"

"I hope so." I said.

**Jake**

It took me one try to figure out that I had to dial "9" to get an outside line. I dialed the secure phone number that Erek had given us shortly after we met. He answered on the second ring.

"Yes?"

"Erek, it's Jake," I said.

"Jake! What's been going on? We had lost track of you _and _the senator. Where are you?"

"It's a long story, but the senator's fine. He's involved in something heavy though. And we're in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado."

"You're in NORAD?"

"Um, no, according to what we've overheard and the big plaque on the wall, we're in the SGC."

"And that is...?"

"No idea."

I explained to Erek what we knew and what we had learned from the senator and by eavesdropping on his meeting. I told him about the Goa'uld, Prometheus, and Kinsey's lies.

"So he knows about the death gliders?" Eric asked.

"Yeah," I said. Then I had a question for Erek. "Erek, was Ra a Goa'uld?"

"From what you told me, it certainly seems that way, but we never heard him referred to as anything other that a 'god,' either by his subjects or Ra himself."

"Greaaat."

"At least it seems their technology hasn't changed much in 5,000 years," Erek said. Then he got back on track. Now, you said the Air Force has a spaceship with a hyperdrive?"

"Yep."

"And what is a hyperdrive?"

"What?"

"I mean, what is _their_ hyperdrive? I know what it is in the Star Wars sense. Have humans developed Z-space flight?"

"Got me. Ax is certain that it's not real. That it's just a fancy sci-fi-ish name for some basic propulsion system."

"We have a few people in the Air Force. We'll look into this."

"Your programming let's you work in the military?"

"In non-combat roles, yes. We're usually in the bureaucracy. We also have a few people in the various branches' JAG corps. But that's not important. I like the idea of bringing the military up to speed on the Yeerks."

"Judging from some of the weird stuff, they've been talking about in the next room, it should be easy. As long as their not Controllers, I mean," I said.

"Hopefully not, if this place is as secret as you say it is. Not even the Chee know about it. But what about the senator?"

"He's lying through his teeth right now," I said. "He's not going to be brought on the inside if we can help it."

"I trust your judgment, but now I need to switch gears a bit. Jake, some big developments have gone in the short time since you've been gone," Erek said.

"Liiike…" I pressed, not liking where this was going.

"After the attack at the factory, Visser Three's acknowledging the death gliders as a threat. He's going all out trying to track them and take them out. So far he's had no luck. This Goa'uld is staying well hidden."

"Well, maybe that will keep him out of our hair for a while."

"There's more. It was actually just announced right after you guys left. Despite the threat posed by this Goa'uld here, the Yeerks are opening up a second front in the war to enslave humanity."

"What do you mean?"

"Jake, the Yeerks have found another planet, light-years away, inhabited by humans."

"_WHAT?"_ I hissed.

"Jake, keep your voice down," Rachel said.

"How is that possible?" I asked Erek.

"I have a theory involving Ra, but this isn't the time. What's important is that when the Yeerks get there, these people won't stand a chance. The world is much less populated than Earth, but there are still millions of people on it. Somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred million, actually, according to Yeerk population estimates. And they're centuries behind Earth technologically. These people are in the classical age. Roman Empire- level technology."

"How do you know all this? About the planet, I mean."

"The Yeerks sent a long range probe. They even got pictures. It's weird. Snowcapped mountains, huge forests. It looks like British Columbia or something."

"Do the Andalites know about this?" I asked.

"According to the Yeerks, no. That could be Yeerk propaganda, but this world is pretty removed from the Andalite beaten track."

"How did the Yeerks find it?"

"These Yeerk long-range probes I mentioned? They fire off a slew of them every so often, in all directions. Sort of like the Voyager or Pioneer probes, but faster, more advanced, and with the sole purpose of finding new worlds for the Yeerks to expand onto."

"Anything else?" I asked, wanting to end the conversation before Erek could bring up anymore bad news.

"Yeah. Visser Three isn't going to command the invasion of this new human world, but he's going to have significant input because of his experiences here on Earth. Plus, a large number of human-Controllers here are going to be transferred to the new planet as a sort of fifth column. The Yeerks have never had the opportunity before, Jake. The same race on two planets that know nothing about each other? It's unprecedented."

"Great, I'm witnessing history," I said unenthusiastically. Then I realized the point Erek was making. "Wait, so between the Goa'uld and this new planet, Visser Three's going to be distracted and the Yeerks here on Earth are going to be shorthanded."

"You got it," Erek replied. "So now would be an opportune time to strike at the Yeerks. And if you can get the military behind you to do it, all the better."

"Wait, why are they sending so many people away from Earth if their dealing with this Goa'uld crisis?"

"Right now the Yeerks are just trying to find this guy. They don't really need a lot of manpower for that. Plus, remember how primitive the other humans are? It won't take the Yeerks long to enslave them. Probably within a couple of weeks of completion of the Pool."

"So if we're going to take a stab at the Yeerks, we better do it now."

"Exactly," Erek replied. "I better let you go, Jake. If you're hiding in some general's office I don't want to keep you. Good luck."

"Yeah, thanks," I said grimly, and hung up.

"Well?" Marco said.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose before answering. "I brought Erek up to speed about what's going on here. He agrees with informing the military."

(But what did he say that got you so riled?) Tobias asked.

I sighed. "He says the Yeerks are preparing to invade another planet populated by humans."

"_WHAT?"_ three human voices and two thoughtspeak voices exclaimed.

"That was my reaction."

(This is not possible,) Ax said. (The Yeerks must be bluffing. There are no humans besides those on Earth.)

"You only discovered Earth and us, what, twenty or so years ago?" Rachel said. "Isn't it possible that there are other human civilizations out there that you don't know about yet?"

(I suppose it is possible,) Ax conceded. (Yet, it is extremely unlikely. How would they get there? What is the original human homeworld? It opens up too many questions.)

I had to say, I had trouble believing it as well. But I trusted Erek, and because of the opportunity his revelation gave us, I felt I had to defend the point. "Erek said that these guys are primitive, so they wouldn't have any of the stuff that would clue in aliens to their presence, like radio or radiation or something," I said.

"Do the Andalites know about this plan?" Cassie asked.

"Probably not," I replied.

Ax snorted. I thought he was about to make some further comment about the unlikeiness of humans away from Earth, but he stayed silent.

"I have a question," Marco said. "Not that this isn't interesting, and Lord knows I wouldn't wish the Yeerks on anyone, but what does this have to do with us?"

"The Yeerks are spreading themselves out. With this new front and the problems the Yeerks are having with our new alien 'friends,' they'll find themselves shorthanded, which is good news for us." I paused. "But they wouldn't be shorthanded for long."

"Meaning?" Marco asked.

"These alien humans are hundreds of years behind us in technology. Ancient Roman stuff. They'll be a pushover. Millions of easy hosts for the Yeerks. Three hundred million was the number Erek said. Three hundred million instant human-Controllers. Reinforces why we're here, I think."

(What do you mean?) Tobias asked.

Marco nodded; he got it now. "We _have_ to let the military know now," he said. "Let the military bring their arms to bear against the Yeerks while their operations are spread out, before this influx of human-Controllers." He frowned. "But what about the Goa'uld?"

"So far that guy's doing everyone a favor by striking against the Yeerks," I said. "And like the girl in the other room said, they can't find him. Fight the enemies we can find, right?"

"Uh-huh," Marco grunted, clearly not convinced. "And what if the Yeerks are the only thing keeping this guy from barbecuing Earth?"

I hesitated. It was a good question, but then I said, "I don't think so. From what Erek said, at this point Visser Three is busting his butt trying to just _find _this Goa'uld. Aside from the slaughters that we saw, they apparently haven't really engaged one another. So really nothing is keeping this guy from going all out. And I would think- _hope_- that Erek would know if the Pool Ship or the Blade Ship were getting shot up in orbit."

"If this alien can find Yeerk bases on Earth, why can't he go after their ships?" Cassie asked. "I would think they would be easier to spot."

"Beats me," I said. "I know we all have a hard enough time trying to figure out the Yeerks. Don't make me try to figure out some aliens we only know through their ships and secondhand knowledge. Maybe the Goa'uld are just as stumped by the Yeerk stealth technology as the Yeerks are by theirs."

(It would seem to me, then,) Ax said, (that rather than simply informing the military of the Yeerk presence, it would be more beneficial to actually team up. We have experience against the Yeerks, and , judging by the conversations we have overheard, the military has experience against these Goa'uld. Through a partnership, we could devise a way to effectively combat both our foes. However, it might be difficult if this second human world is indeed a ruse.)

"Ax, how big is the galaxy?" I asked.

(Why, it is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter and contains several hundred billion stars, but what does that-)

I cut him off. "And of that, how much have the Andalites explored? How many star systems?"

(I-I cannot exactly recall. Many.) Ax said nervously.

"Uh-huh." I wasn't convinced, but I dropped the matter, having made my point.

"Ooooh," I heard Marco mutter. "Ax got _told_."

(Hey guys,) Tobias spoke up. (The senator just stormed out of the room. Said something about the Goa'uld and then threatened the officers' jobs and just left.)

"Wait," Rachel said. "You've been listening to them this whole time?"

(That _is _why we chose to demorph in the room right next to them isn't it?) Tobias cocked his head at me.

I scratched my head. "To tell you the truth, I kinda got overwhelmed by what Erek was saying and forgot about that. But never mind. What have you heard?"

(I've only been listening off and on. The conversation in here was way more interesting, but after we left the meeting became mostly just Kinsey making thinly veiled threats and questioning people's competence. They did mention what I think, judging from the context, is some other alien race. Asgard, I think. Apparently there's some politics involved with these Asgard, the Goa'uld, and the guys in the next room.)

"Isn't Asgard the realm of the Norse gods?" Cassie asked.

(Not unless the Norse gods have advanced technology.)

Ax sniffed, but didn't say anything.

(They've also brought up another planet,) Tobias added.

Now Ax spoke up. (What planet?) he asked with unexpected interest.

Tobias ruffled his feathers in a way that looked for all the world like a shrug. (Got me,) he said. (They used some kind of code or designation system. PX...P5...Something like that.)

"Can you tell if the Air Force guys are staying put?" Rachel asked.

(Yeah, for now,) Tobias replied. (They, um,) he paused apparently listening. (They seem to be questioning Kinsey's motives in coming here. Trying to divine his intentions. Oh, that and mocking him.)

"So what now, Fearless Leader?" Marco asked me.

"We need to set the record straight," Cassie said. "Refute Kinsey."

Marco looked at Cassie. "So, what? We just walk into the conference room?"

"Why not?" I said suddenly. "We came here to inform, and as Ax said, possibly team up with the military. Besides, it will have an impact. Four kids, a hawk and an alien waltzing out of a guy's office? It'll definitely have an impact."

"Yeah, an impact as security unloads on us." Marco said. "Let's not forget that there are armed soldiers on this base. Going out there now is insane."

"You say that about all our plans," Rachel said. "And you're not dead yet."

"And it's not for lack of trying," Marco shot back.

(You know, Jake,) Tobias said, (we could demorph in there, in front of them. It would definitely get their attention and by just having a couple of us go, we wouldn't risk everyone.)

I thought about it. "No," I finally said. "Whoever went out would be exposed while they demorphed. After all we've been through, I don't want anyone to die because of a twitchy soldier freaked out at a bug turning into a kid."

(Like Ax isn't going to freak them out.)

"Ax can take care of himself," I said. "Right, Ax?"

(Yes, Prince Jake,) Ax replied, deftly twirling his tail a little.

Tobias cocked his head. (Alright, I guess.)

"I do agree, though, that not all of should go," I said, "Marco and Tobias will hang back in here ready to step in if things do get ugly."

I sighed. "Alright, then. Ax? You'll go first. We'll be right behind you."

(Yes, Prince Jake.)

I felt a little cowardly putting Ax in front, but among the Animorphs he was the most effective fighter in his natural form. Also, I planned on using him as a rudimentary Yeerk detector. It seems that a lot of Yeerks can't look at an Andalite without shouting something like "Andalite scum!" or at least making a recognizable look of contempt. Erek had said that the odds of the base personnel being infested were small, but you could never be too careful.

**Ax**

Rachel, Cassie, and Prince Jake gathered behind me as I slowly pushed open the door of the office.

All heads in the room turned towards the door as it swung open and I stepped through it.

I indeed did have an impact as I stepped into the room, which was expected, since these humans had likely never seen an Andalite before.

"Whoah!"

"What in God's name!"

"Holy Hannah!"

All five human pushed their chairs back from the conference table. Four of them leapt to their feet, while the man whom Marco had called the general remained seated. The large dark-skinned man with the odd head marking approached me threateningly, while the woman moved to a large red button on the wall. It was not difficult to guess the function of the button.

(Please do not activate the alarm. We do not mean to harm you.) I said as reassuringly as I could.

Luckily, that seemed to have the desired effect. The woman stopped, her hand inches from the alarm. The large man also halted in his advance toward me.

I did not believe that any of these humans were Controllers. A Controller would most likely have called me Andalite filth and tried to kill me, despite anything I said.

The human I recognized as Col. O'Neill furrowed his eyebrows in a human expression of confusion.

"We?"

The Animorphs stepped out from behind, making the soldiers' eyes widen in shock.

"We," Prince Jake said.


	8. The Trouble

After a long hiatus, the next chapter is finally up! And it's a doozy. Exposition and revelations. I finished this chapter at 3 AM, so expect there to be some grammatical and spelling errors. Hopefully they're minor. And if anyone has tried to email me in the last month, month and a half, or so and never got a response. There was some glitch with my mail that was sending a lot of stuff to the junk folder. Which of course never gets checked. It's corrected now, so I should respond to emails I get (unless, you know, I just don't like you...Kidding!)

* * *

**Rachel**

Everyone stared at Jake. For a moment no one spoke. I took advantage of the lull to glance around the room. Typical board room, with one long conference table in the middle. What caught my attention, however, was the thing on the other side of the window that dominated the long side of the room. Some kind of ring made out of stone or metal, I couldn't decide on which, with a ramp leading up to it. What also caught my eye were the gun emplacements and missile launchers that they had aimed at the ring. I took a note of them. Whatever the ring was, it had the potential for trouble.

Col. O'Neill finally spoke. "So what's your story?" he said, in an amazingly conversational tone considering the circumstances. "Need a System Lord ousted? Planet under attack? Have a rebel faction threatening to destroy humanity? Come on, we've heard them all."

The general shot O'Neill a strong look before turning to us. "I'm more concerned with how you got into this facility." He squinted at Ax. "And what the devil are you?"

Ax bristled. (I am an Andalite,) he said tersely.

The general glanced at Teal'c. The large man caught the look and turned to look at Ax, eyebrow raised. "It is not a race with which I am familiar, General Hammond."

I watched the officers during Hammond's and Teal'c's exchange, looking for any sign of that familiar hatred or disgust. I saw nothing beyond concern and curiosity.

Jake raised his hands. "How we got in here isn't really important right now. What is important is the threat to Earth."

"Um, yeah. We know. There's at least one Ha'tak in range of Earth," Jackson said.

'At least one- what?" Jake rubbed his bridge of his nose. "Look, I don't know what-"

I was getting impatient. It was very possible that someone down the spiral staircase in the corner had heard us and security was being called. I was ready to speed this up.

"We're not talking about any Goa'uld or whatever," I snapped. "We're talking about the Yeerks, Parasitic slugs that have enslaved dozens of races and conquered several worlds. They have incredibly advanced technology and so far they've been nigh-unstoppable. And they're here. They're here now. They've been here. Do I have your attention?"

"Well,… yes," Jackson said, with a "deer-in-the-headlights" kind of look from my outburst.

Suddenly alarms began to wail. Crap! We were busted! The whole base would be on top of us. I tensed, calling forth the grizzly bear DNA inside of me from dormancy. I had just begun to bulk up when a new voice cut across on the PA system.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!"

Security wasn't rushing through the door, and I noticed that Maj. Carter had moved away from the wall alarm, so I paused the morph. Unscheduled offworld activation? What the heck did that mean? I glanced at my friends. None of them were giving any indication of morphing in reaction to the alarm. Instead they were staring into the large chamber through the window where something was happening to the ring. In the conference room, the general was getting up from the table. "I better see what this is about. SG-1, keep an eye on our guest," he said, and disappeared down the staircase in the corner of the room.

"Soooo, what was this you were saying about alien enslavers?" O'Neill said.

None of us answered, we were too busy watching the scene unfold in the adjacent chamber. Lights were coming on in sequence along the circumference of the circle as armed troops rushed in to the room to train their guns, including the stationary emplacements, on the ring. I suddenly remembered my earlier thoughts about the ring being threatening.

"Umm guys, I think we should-"

I was cut off when the final light came on at the top of the ring. We all gave a jump as a jet of what looked like water erupted horizontally from the middle of the ring with a loud "KA-WHOOSH!" The jet settled back into the ring, forming a "pool" that shimmered and rippled in the middle of the circle. With a weird whirring nose, a metal plate, kind of like a camera shutter, came out of the inner edge of the ring and covered the well.

"What the heck is that thing!" Cassie said, not taking her eyes of the ring.

I turned to face the officers as Jackson answered. "That's the Stargate," he said, looking a little puzzled. "You're not familiar with the Stargate?" Seeing blank looks he continued. "Chappa'ai? Annulus? No?"

"Umm, no," I said. "Is this thing supposed to be common knowledge? When the military discloses some big new toy it's usually on CNN or the Internet or something."

"Wait, you're from Earth?" Carter asked.

"Born and raised." Cassie said.

"OK, yeah, sure. Maybe you three," O'Neill said, pointing at Jake, Cassie, and me. "But there's no way I'm going to believe that about him." He pointed at Ax.

(You are correct in assuming that I am not from Earth,) Ax said rather impatiently. (I am an Andalite.)

"Yeah, so you told us. Never heard of it," the colonel said, either not catching Ax's tone or choosing to ignore it. I guessed the latter. "So how'd you fall in with these guys?"

"Wait," Jake said, stepping forward. "I want your general here too. I don't want to repeat this."

"He's here," came Hammond's voice. A moment later he emerged from the stairs. The Stargate or whatever it was evidently shut down. There was another whooshing sound and the light playing on the back of the wall of the Stargate's room disappeared. "That was SG-11 reporting in," the general said to the four soldiers. Then he turned to us. "But that can wait. I believe you were going to tell us what's going on."

"Oooh-Kay," Jake took a deep breath. He was nervous. We all were. The last time we brought someone on the inside things had not gone well. "OK. I'm Jake. This is Cassie, Rachel, and Ax." He knocked on the widow into the office and Marco and Tobias, in human morph, appeared in the doorway. "And this is Marco and Tobias," Jake finished the introductions.

"I hope you didn't disturb anything in my office," Hammond said tensely.

I thought about us using the phone. "Absolutely not," I said. Marco nodded.

"Wait. Ax?" O'Neill asked incredulously.

(My full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.) Ax replied.

"Oh." I could see O'Neill silently trying to get his lips around Ax's name. It didn't take him long to give up. "Ax it is is!"

Jake went on. "And we are-"

Marco interrupted. "The Animorphs."

Jake shot him a dirty look, then shrugged. "Yeah, we're the Animorphs." I searched the listening faces for any hints of recognition, hatred, or disgust. Nothing.

Jake continued, "Listen, the Yeerks are here. They already have thousands of human hosts and they're getting more everyday. So far we've been the only thing that stands between them and the planet."

"OK, pardon me for asking, but how can a group of teenagers and a, um, Andalite stand against an alien invasion?" Jackson asked.

Cassie answered. "The Yeerks have their weaknesses. For one, they want to keep the invasion quiet. They want to quietly infest people until they have enough people- Controller is what we call a Yeerk infested being- to quickly seize control of the planet with minimum fuss and bloodshed. Since the Yeerks won't bring their full power to bear, it's easier for us to run interference, but that's really all we can do. Interfere. Also, we have allies; some are rebel Yeerks within the invasion's ranks."

Jake sighed. "But our greatest weapon is the morphing power."

I watched. Still no evil Yeerk twinkle in their eyes.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little bit more specific," Col. O'Neill said. "Morphing power?" He turned looked at Ax. "And I'm still curious about why you're hanging out with these kids."

We turned to Ax. He grudgingly answered the colonel.

(The morphing power is a technology of my people. It allows us to become any animal we touch.) I noticed SG-1 exchange slightly excited glances at this. (As for my place with the Animorphs, I was stationed aboard an Andalite Dome ship that engaged a Yeerk task force above this planet. The battle did not go well. I was the only survivor. My human friends found me.)

"And you gave them the morphing technology?" Maj. Carter asked.

(No, that was my brother, Elfangor. He landed on Earth and gave my friends the morphing power right before he was murdered by Visser Three.) You could feel the hatred in Ax's thought-speak.

"Who?" O'Neill seemed oblivious.

Ax's face hardened. (Visser Three. The Abomination. The only Andalite-Controller in the galaxy and the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.) Ax trained all four of his eyes on the people at the table. (Here, I will show you what we are up against.)

Ax

Andalites have the ability to transmit images with their mind through powerful thought-speak. Elfangor did it to my friends when they first met and he told them of the Yeerk threat. Now I felt it necessary to give these officers a taste of the Yeerk War.

I showed them an unhosted Yeerk, swimming in the sludge of a Yeerk Pool. Then I showed them what we had seen in the Pool under my friends' hometown: people's heads being forced under the surface of the steely gray sludge of the Pool and humans and Hork-Bajir screaming as they waited helplessly in cages as their enslavers fed on Kadrona Rays.

I showed them an engagement between a mighty Andalite Dome ship and a Yeerk Pool Ship. Images of the Hork-Bajir homeworld, ruined by the war, flashed through their minds. Then I showed these humans our latest battles. Marco taking a dracon beam to the chest. Jake's spine being severed by a Hork-Bajir blade. I concluded with an image a Visser Three, cycling through his most terrifying morphs. All of them gave a noticeable shiver as I let them feel my hatred for the Abomination.

After I had finished I spoke. (That is what we are up against.)

The soldiers were silent.

**Jack O'Neill**

We were all kind of in shock after Ax's montage played through our minds. We had all seen some pretty disturbing stuff, but these were just kids…

After Ax's slideshow, the kids etched out the rest of the details, like how the Yeerks had to leave their host every three days to feed in the Yeerk Pool, and how the Yeerks used their Hork-Bajir shock troops. They also told us about their little encounter with Kinsey and how they got into the SGC. Shock me, shock me, shock me, the senator had lied to us. Most likely he had wanted to get the Animorphs on a dissection table at Area 51. After the kids had finished, I got the feeling that they still weren't telling us everything, but heck, any secrets of theirs were probably secret for a good reason. At their urging, Hammond agreed to seal the mountain for three days to weed out any possible Yeerks in the base, despite my insistence that if the Yeerks knew about the gate, we'd be in even deeper then we already were.

Carter finally asked the question I knew she had been dying to ask. "How does your morphing technology work, Ax?"

(I cannot say. Sharing technology with other races is in violation of Andalite laws.)

"Your brother did."

(He had no choice.)

"This sounds familiar." Daniel muttered.

I looked at him. "You getting the whole Tollan vibe too?"

"Oh, yeah."

I turned to Ax. "Let me guess. You gave advanced technology to an inferior species and they horribly abused it, resulting in chaos and destruction."

The Andalite blinked several times. (Well,…yes, but how did-)

"We've heard this story before. Alien technology is a touchy thing to pass around, apparently."

"Maybe we can discuss the technical side of this later," Hammond interjected. "Right now I'm more concerned about the Goa'uld and Yeerk threats to Earth."

"Maybe if we wait they'll destroy each other," Daniel said hopefully.

I noticed one of the kids- Marco I think- raise his hand, looking for all the world like a kid in class. "Actually, we're kinda still in the dark about all this Goa'uld and SGC stuff, so, uh, feel free to enlighten us."

"Well it is highly classified, but I think under the circumstances, we can waive the nondisclosure agreements just this once, eh General?" I said to Hammond.

"Agreed. Take it away."

"Uh, OK. Well, then uh…Major?"

Carter hid a grin as she started explaining the Goa'uld, our allies, the Prometheus and F-302s, and the Stargate. Teal'c and Daniel offered up additional information, while I contributed my own accumulated wit and wisdom. Sometimes, I had to get Carter back on track when she started going into the supergenius physics side of things and the kids' eye started to glaze over.

When she finished, the kids were speechless. Then they all were blurting questions at once.

"How can the Goa'uld not meet the Yeerks and Andalites."

"How many worlds does the gate go to?"

(How does your hyperdrive work?)

I rubbed my eyes. "For crying out loud…" I muttered. "Hello, people! Parasites. Aliens. Threat to Earth. We can discuss that other stuff later."

"OK, then," Jake- who was obviously the leader- said. "Back on track. We know that you can't find the Goa'uld ship. What about the Yeerks' ships. Could you pinpoint those?"

"Depending on how they're cloaked and where they are, it might be possible." Carter said. "However, our one platform capable of attacking them is Prometheus, and it's currently undergoing maintenance."

"What kind of ships do they have?" Hammond asked.

Tobias answered. "They have one Pool Ship. It's huge and armed to the teeth, but it is not what you would call agile. The Blade Ship is smaller, but it's probably just as well armed and it's much more maneuverable. There are also several more support ships in orbit, and both the Blade Ship and the Pool Ship house a number of Bug Fighters, and they have dozens, probably hundreds, more Earth-based Bug Fighters."

Ax continued. (The Yeerk weapon of choice is the dracon beam, a concentrated-beam energy weapon. The dracon cannon on the Pool Ship is easily capable of vaporizing a city from orbit.)

"Can Prometheus handle that?" Daniel asked.

"The Asgard shields are able to take a beating," Carter said. "But depending on the Yeerks' shield capability we might not do too well offensively."

This sounded slightly pessimistic. I felt there was a need brighten the outlook.

"Come on, Prometheus can go toe-to-toe with a Goa'uld mothership."

"One mothership, sir. Prometheus would be going up against two Yeerk capital ships, several support ships and who knows how many fighters."

"Always the pessimist."

"It's my job, sir."

"Hey, wait a minute!" One of the girls- Rachel- said excitedly. "Maybe the Stargate goes right to Andalite homeworld! We can bring in the cavalry right under the Yeerks' nose! Then we would kick their butts, right?"

(I don't know of any Stargate on my world,) Ax said, turning one of the eyes on top of his head toward the Stargate. (However, I am just an aristh. My not knowing doesn't mean anything, if this operation here is any indication.)

"So then it is a possibility worth exploring," Hammond said. "Major, if Ax here gave you enough information, could you calculate if there's a Stargate located on his homeworld?"

"I could find the Stargates in that area of space, sir. We'd have to try them to see if they go to the Andalite world."

"I'll want you to get on that, then, Major. Any more ideas?" He directed that last question toward the Animorphs.

"Umm, actually, I have a question," Marco said. "How many human-settled worlds are there? You know, just out of curiosity." He glanced at Jake, who hesitated for moment, but then nodded.

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands of worlds are inhabited by humans," Teal'c said. "All moved there by the Goa'uld from Earth to increase their pool of slave labor." The big guy frowned. Well, frowned bigger. "I fail to see how that pertains to Earth's security."

"Well, have you seen any signs of Yeerk activity on any of those worlds?"

"Nooo," Daniel said hesitantly. "But then we haven't really been looking. We've found artifacts that we haven't been able to place, but most of them were on the order of several hundred years old. Why do you ask?"

"Just want to know my enemy," Marco said, but I noticed him giving Jake a shrug.

Before I could think better of it, I said, "There has been some strange activity on 208."

General Hammond gave me a stern look, "Colonel…" he said in a rather discouraging tone.

I, however, was not to be daunted. "Come on, sir. We've told them everything else."

"The activity on 208 is undergoing ongoing investigation so we can figure out what actually going on there," Hammond said. "I don't think we should disclose it now."

"Well, maybe they can help us figure it out." I turned to the kids. "You seem to have alien experience."

Hammond looked exasperated. "Very well, go ahead."

"Thank you, sir." I focused on the Animorphs. "A few months ago we explored a planet that we designated P3Y-208. The locals call the planet Umbra. We-"

"It's a moon," Daniel interrupted.

"Daniel?"

"Well, it's moon, not a planet." He turned to the teenagers in the room. "Umbra is Latin for Shadow. Umbra exists in the shadow of the gas giant that it orbits around. The culture and the technology indicates Roman ancestry and-" He stopped, apparently noticing that I was glaring daggers at him.

"Daniel, that is not relevant at all."

"Could be," he muttered under his breath. I ignored him.

"Anyway, the inhabitants of this moon were friendly, and were happy to strike up relation with Earth. The best part is, Umbra is rich is minerals that we, but not the Umbrans, have use for. We-"

Now it was Carter cutting in. "Umbra has large deposits of both naquadah and trinium, which we use for advanced technology-"

"For crying out loud! Can I get anything said without being interrupted!" I exclaimed.

Carter looked sheepish. "Sorry, sir."

"You know what, I'm tired of being interrupted, you just finish the story."

"Sir?"

"Tell them our experience with Umbra, Major."

She sighed, and turned her attention to the Animorphs, who looked amused by our exchange.

"We sent a team under SG-11, an engineering team, to lead a mining survey. There are some abandoned Goa'uld mines on the moon, and getting those up and running again would be far easier than starting an offworld mining operation from scratch. Shortly after they arrived they began giving reports of a strange craft seen in the Umbran sky that was clearly alien in origin. The Umbra's don't have the technology to get anything flying. As suddenly as the craft appeared, it disappeared, and it hasn't been since."

"So, we're not the only planet that gets UFOs," Marco muttered.

"SG-11 is still there, finishing up the survey, but ever since the craft was spotted, SG-3 was sent to provide backup in case anything happened," Carter concluded.

"Well, now apparently, there is more happening on Umbra," General Hammond said.

"Sir?" I said.

"SG-11's latest report said they saw something moving in the night sky. It was big, it was bright, and it was slow. Too slow to be a meteor, and it didn't burn up."

Uh, oh, I sensed were this was going.

Hammond sighed. "SG-11 thinks it's a ship."

**Marco**

"So some System Lord has come back to reclaim long ignored territory." Jackson said. "It's probably in response to Anubis' recent advances."

I had a different theory for the ships near Umbra. Judging by the worried looks on my friends faces, they had the same theory. From what SG-1 had explained, the System Lords were seriously bad news, but what about compared to our enemies? I didn't know.

"Did SG-11 send any pictures of the craft they saw on Umbra a few months back?" Jake asked.

"Several." Hammond said. "Major, could you bring up SG-11 report on the craft on Umbra?

"Yes, sir," Carter went over to the computer along the conference room wall. She pressed something and a screen came down from the ceiling in front of the SGC logo on the wall. She finagled with the computer a moment until a digital projector displayed a picture on the screen.

"That's our UFO," O'Neill said.

Judging by the trees around it, the craft was about the size of a VW Beetle. The thing had all manner of sensory equipment sticking out of it. Antennae and satellite dishes and panels. And it had a fearsome, really familiar design. All hard angles and sharp edges.

I didn't want to say it. "Please don't tell me that you think that that thing looks rather-"

"Yeerkish?" Rachel finished.

Ax confirmed our fear. (That is a Yeerk long range probe.)


	9. The Interlude

And he said, though he knew he was very, very late,  
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all **_two_** updates!"

Yes, you heard right, an update for both my stories. With the semester over I finally have some time to tackle other things, including these stories. Thanks to everyone for staying with me. Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day/Holidays/Whatever.

Also, I wanted this up on or around Christmas before I left town for a week, so I may have hastened through my proof-reads. Sorry in advance for errors.

**Marco**

We all sat in a holding room somewhere in the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain. The room was small and barren, with a line of bunks on one wall and a sink on another. The place could have really used a competant interior designer.

The SGC leadership had apologized for our accommodations, or lack thereof, but we had all agreed that we needed to stay away from Kinsey, who was staying in one of the apparently posh VIP suites on another level. Hence, we were staying in three cramped, ugly rooms that exhibited a horrible lack of any architectural charm. The girls were in one, the guys were in another, and Ax had been given one cleared of furniture all to himself. He still complained about his room to no end, though. Andalites are a claustrophobic folk.

Now all of us, sans Ax, were holding an impromptu meeting in the guys' room. Ax was off somewhere with Major Carter, trying to determine if there was a Stargate on the Andalite homeworld.

Right after Ax's revelation about the Yeerk probe, General Hammond had recalled the teams on Umbra back to Earth. If seeing the Stargate just activate was weird, seeing the thing activate and then several armed people walking out of it was about 10 times weirder. Eight soldiers walking out of a freestanding puddle, looking like it was the most normal thing in the world. Now, as an Animorph, I've seen a lot of pretty bizarre things, as well as several nightmare inducingly horrifying things, but seeing the Stargate in action, coupled with finding out what the thing actually did, was still a shock.

And of course the Stargate opened up a whole new can of worms for us to deal with. Obviously we had all the new neighborhood bullies that the SGC had opened our eyes to, but we were also very worried about the Yeerks stumbling across an instantaneous, direct route to Earth, particularly with the new developments on Umbra.

"So, now what?" Rachel asked. "How are we gonna deal with all these pesky aliens all over the galaxy?"

"Since when are we responsible for the entire galaxy?" I asked her.

Cassie spoke up before Rachel could reply. "We have a responsibility to defend the human race against the Yeerks."

I turned to her. "Yeah, the human race on _Earth_. When I signed up for this, Umbrans weren't part of the deal."

Tobias cut in. (Nothing against the Umbrans, but I _am _more concerned about Earth.)

"Thank _you_." I said.

(But unfortunately, thanks to the SGC- though through no fault of theirs- Earth's security is now tied to Umbra's.)

What Tobias was saying struck me just as Jake nodded. "The Umbrans met the SG teams from Earth. The Yeerks will know about the Stargate and Earth's connection to it as soon as they infest someone," he said. "We gotta tell Hammond, because if someone over there knows how to work the Stargate…"

"These people seem know their aliens," I said, "I would hope that they would have thought of this."

"But they don't have experience with the Yeerks," Jake said. "Besides, I think they're more worried about the Goa'uld near Earth."

"Umm, Jake," I said. "From what we've heard, the Goa'uld are no better than the Yeerks. Shouldn't we be worried about him too?"

Jake sighed, "Yeah, but what can we do?" He dragged his hands over his face. "Why this does this have to be so complicated," he muttered. He sighed again. "I think we need to talk to Hammond and SG-1 again."

**Ax**

(If I may ask, Major Carter, what will be done if a Stargate is on my world?)

We were in the control room of the SGC, attempting to discover if the Andalite homeworld did indeed have a Stargate. Major Carter had inputted the information and coordinates I had given her into the base computer, and now it was "crunching numbers," as Colonel O'Neill had said when he visited a short while ago.

"Well, the best this system can do is give us the addresses that we have on file that are located in the region of space that you narrowed down. Hopefully it will be a manageable number," she replied.

(Addresses on file?)

"We have thousands of Stargate addresses in our computers, visited and unexplored, including every Stargate charted by the Goa'uld. Thousands of other addresses, unknown to the Goa'uld, come from a database compiled by an extinct and advanced race that we call the Ancients.

"As for what we'll do once we narrow it down, it gets a little tedious at that point. Some we'll be able to write off because we've visited them. The ones that we haven't visited we'll have to dial. Where we can establish wormholes we'll send a MALP probe through to see if the planet is even habitable; where it is we'll attempt a radio transmission. Can you give us a frequency that your people will notice?"

(Of course.)

In truth, however, I was concerned about potentially opening up a direct link between Earth and my world. This whole facility concerned me, as did the thought of human interstellar travel in general. From what Major Carter had told me, the SGC in general and SG-1 in particular had won amazing victories against much more powerful foes. They had done this with limited Earth technology as well as by adapting alien technology, often on the fly. SG-1 had spoken of Earth's reverse-engineering programs, which had resulted in at least one interstellar capital ship, _Prometheus_. From the Major's specifications, _Prometheus,_ was nowhere near comparable to an Andalite Dome ship, but still the thought of humans being able to project power on a galactic scale had me shocked and worried. Humans were allies in the war against the Yeerks, and they opposed the Goa'uld, another race seeking to enslave and destroy, but I worried slightly about what human ingenuity, innovation, and adaptability would mean for the galaxy after the wars were over.

"Ax?"

I was so lost in my thoughts that I did not notice Major Carter trying to get my attention.

"Ax?"

I finally snapped out of my reverie.

(Yes?)

Carter gestured to Colonel O'Neill who had entered the room.

"So how's the gate search coming?" the colonel asked.

Major Carter replied, "The computer should have some gates narrowed down in an hour or so. What have you been doing, sir?"

"Oh, Kinsey was throwing a fit in Hammond's office earlier. And I was right there…listening."

Major Carter raised an eyebrow, a gesture humans use to express incredulity, but didn't say anything.

O'Neill leaned against a bank of computers before turning to me. "Actually, he was talking about you and your friends," he said. "Seems to think that you followed in into the mountain and are trying to sabotage our operations and conquer Earth or something."

(How did the general react?) I asked.

"Hammond and I had no idea what Kinsey was talking about. Any aliens, or alien-empowered humans, in the SGC, we'd know about."

So SG-1 truly was on our side. (Did the senator believe you?)

O'Neill smirked. "We could tell Kinsey that the sky is blue and he'd have to go outside to check. Of course he didn't believe us. But he's not in much of a position to do anything about it." He crossed his arms. "Of course, there is some discrepancy between your two stories…"

This alarmed me. I narrowed my main eyes. (Kinsey is lying. You cannot possibly-)

O'Neill held up a hand. "Relax. We have enough experience with Kinsey to take what he says with an enormous block of salt." I was not sure what this meant, but I presumed it was reassurance that SG-1 did not believe Kinsey. O'Neill went on. "Hopefully, if we're persistent enough in our denials, Kinsey will leave in a couple of days."

(That would be unwise,) I said. (As soon as they pinpoint him, the Yeerks will redouble their efforts to kill or capture him.)

Carter spoke up. "So Kinsey's stuck here?" she said with slight alarm.

(Yes, unless you want the secrets of the Stargate known to the Yeerks, or else a dead senator.)

"How likely is it that they'll kill him instead of infest him?" O'Neill asked.

"Sir!" Major Carter said reproachfully while my eyes widened. I had realized that Colonel O'Neill did not like Senator Kinsey, but suggesting that he would leave his fate to the Yeerks? This was one of those times that humans alarmed truly alarmed me.

O'Neill seemed oblivious to my surprise. "So, Carter, are you gonna just stare at these computers until they give you a few planets?" The colonel said, in what I'm pretty sure was sarcasm, or perhaps it was rhetorical question. "Daniel, Teal'c, and I are going go grab a bite. Care to join us?"

"Sounds good, sir. I haven't eaten yet." Major Carter turned to me. "If you want to assume your human form we can drop you back by your room and you can meet up with your friends."

"Actually we just came up to see you," came Prince Jake's voice from the stair to the briefing room.

**Cassie**

We were back in the briefing room of the SGC, going over the concerns we had about the situation on Umbra with Gen. Hammond and SG-1, mainly what the Yeerks could get from the heads of the Umbrans.

"I don't think we'll have Yeerks knocking on the door," General Hammond was saying. "According to reports and debriefings from SG teams one, three, and eleven, the Umbrans don't know the address for the Earth Stargate, or any other Stargate, for that matter."

"Yeah, the Goa'uld left thousands of years ago," Dr. Jackson said. "There's no one around who knew, before we came through, what the Stargate was really used for. Besides, we have the iris over the gate."

We knew he was referring to the camera shutter-like device over the Stargate. "Yeah, but the Yeerks will still learn about the Stargate, what it is used for, and that it connects to Earth," Jake said. "Even if they don't learn how to use it on Umbra, they'll realize that there's a gate on Earth. And I guarantee you they'll start focusing a lot of effort on finding it."

"I just don't see what can be done about it," Hammond conceded, frowning. "We can't send any kind of support to Umbra, or we risk one of our own being captured by the Yeerks. Then they'll _really _know everything."

"The Asgard?" Dr. Jackson suggested.

"Replicator issues." Major Carter replied.

"I thought that the bugs were stuck in that time bubble thing-a-majig." Colonel O'Neill said.

"They are," Major Carter replied. "But the Asgard are still monitoring Halla, and trying to reconstruct they're civilization-"

General Hammond must have seen that SG-1 was losing us in their talk about Replicators, because he cut Major Carter off. "I'm sorry, but I just don't see how any aid can be sent to stop the fall of Umbra to the Yeerks right now." He held up a hand, cutting off our protests. "We're just as concerned as you are, but we're just going to have to meet the Yeerk, and Goa'uld, threat on our own planet."

"So, we're just writing off Umbra?" I said, standing up and raising my voice. How could they just sacrifice an entire planet? Full of human beings, no less. "Those are people on that planet, General. People with no defense against the Yeerks."

"Cassie…" Jake said, touching my arm.

"No, she's right," Rachel said angrily, standing up beside me. "This would be a major victory for the Yeerks. They'll get millions of human hosts, a new planet to serve as a base of operations, and knowledge about a gizmo that could potentially spread them throughout the galaxy even more right under everyone's noses!" She was practically shouting.

"Hey!" Now O'Neill pushed his chair aside and stood up, glaring at us while gripping the table. "This is war, ladies. You win battles. You lose battles. You just hope you win the war. We've been at war with the Goa'uld for over six years now, and it shows no sign of ending anytime soon. And now you come and we learn that humanity is fighting two wars against two superior alien forces. Well, I'll tell ya something. In both of these wars the front the matters the most is the home front: _Earth_. And right now both our enemies are threatening it. Between aliens, _human _aliens, I grant you, but aliens all the same, and their planet, and my own planet, dear old Earth, guess what? I'm gonna choose Earth."

Rachel and I glared at Col. O'Neill. Rachel had her teeth bared. The colonel just continued to glare right back.

I heard Marco sigh and say, "Alright, now this is getting ridiculously complicated."

* * *

Yay! Exposition! And plot development! Next chapter things will start really going somewhere. It is my _hope_ (note: not a guarantee) that I'll have the next chapter up by February. I'll be able to work on it during the break in those first couple of weeks before my fourth semester at college starts heating up. 


	10. The Discovery

Hey, all. No, I'm not dead, though there were episodes in the last six months that made me wish I was. And I haven't given up on either of my stories. And for those who emailed me, whether out of concern for me, my stories, or both, I appreciate it (in varying degrees).

* * *

**Cassie**

"How could they just write off an entire _planet_ like that!" I said to no one particular.

We were back in the boys' room. After Rachel's and my outburst in the conference room, all involved parties- and by that I mean everyone _but_ Rachel and me- had decided everyone needed some time to cool off and think.

Thinking was good; we were still taking in a lot.

But I was mad. And disappointed.

"They're _human beings_," I said. No one answered me right away. They probably expected this of me. I'm regarded as the conscience of the team. Of course I was expected to rant and rave when the rights of people were being violated.

Even Rachel, who had backed me up before, was silent, brooding. She had called SG-1 out in the conference room, but she, was probably realizing now that a fight lay on Earth. Rachel just wanted to be where the fight was. And she was probably coming to agree with SG-1's assessment of the situation. Rachel was an eyes-on-the-prize warrior, doing whatever it took to win. Sometimes she truly scared me, scared all of us, and it was all we could do to keep her from leaving morality in the dust.

But I suspected that even her inner warrior was conflicted on this. Which would inflict more pain on the enemy? Umbra or Earth?

Of course leaving Umbra and striking at the Yeerks and Goa'uld on Earth now was a more pressing issue for most of them, and it made a measure of strategic sense. Plus as far as I could tell and from what SG-1 had told us, we just didn't have the ability to oppose the Yeerks on Umbra and guarantee Earth's safety. Well, relative safety. Everything backed up the decision of the SGC. Even I saw that now. Marco and Ax had probably seen it right away. They were the top strategist among us. Tobias and Jake had likely figured it out a just a beat after them.

But still…

"Cassie."

I looked up. It was Jake.

"I know how you're feeling," he said, a little awkwardly. "You're pissed, disappointed, and saddened. And you have every right to be."

I sighed. "I know this move makes sense, but… just leaving them to be enslaved? 'Beat the Yeerks, don't become them,'" I said. "Isn't that what we've always said? How does this live up that? It's things like this that chisel away at our credibility, our morality. Maybe even our humanity."

Jake squatted so we were eye to eye. "The fact that you're so distraught over this proves your humanity's still there," he said. "And this bugs all of us, so maybe there's hope for the rest of us, too. But you may be right. Maybe it does pick away at us. Maybe all we can do is hope that we have enough of that credibility, morality, and humanity left when this war's over."

"Things would be so much easier if we didn't have to fight that way," I sighed

"Unfortunately, the Yeerks don't give us that choice."

We were silent for a moment. Finally, I was about to say something else when the there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a reply, Colonel O'Neill entered the room.

"Just thought you'd like to know that Carter's gate search program has spit out a list of possible addresses for the Andalite homeworld."

"Finally, some good news," Marco said. Then he paused and raised an eyebrow. "Right?"

"Umm, maybe," Colonel O'Neill replied. "It's… Well, it's." He frowned. "Ya know, I'll just let you talk to Carter. Come on, she's in the control room."

We all started to morph fly for the trip to control room. We moved around the SGC in morph, since no one wanted to explain to Senator Kinsey what a bunch of teenagers were doing in a top secret Air Force base on the off chance we ran into him in the corridors. However, O'Neill stopped us.

"That won't be necessary; we have been granted a blessed respite from Kinsey."

"What do you mean?" asked Jake, still mostly human.

"I mean the senator has shipped out."

(You did not release him?) Ax asked with alarm.

"Well, yes and no. We told him that we did believe that you were a threat, and were trying to deal with you with arousing your suspicions, so it was taking time. Hammond suggested that he was better off at the Alpha Site and he was eager to go."

"Wait, what's the Alpha Site?" Jake asked.

"Oh, have we not told you yet?" O'Neill shrugged. "It's one of our off-world bases. Completely off the grid. Kinsey'll be out of our hair for a while. Means your accommodations will get better, too. Now let's go." He gestured out the door.

We filed past O'Neill into the corridor. Ax and Tobias hung back in the room a moment to morph human, just because it was easier to move around the tunnels and elevators of the SGC as a human. As I passed the colonel, he and I exchanged glances as I passed him. His expression was unreadable.

* * *

O'Neill led us to the control room. General Hammond, Teal'c, Dr. Jackson, and Carter were already there, along with a bespectacled sergeant I didn't know. As we arranged ourselves among the banks of computer, I couldn't help but stare at the stargate yet again. All the opportunities and problems that ring presented… 

"Alright, Carter. They're here. Now, let's hear it," O'Neill said.

Major Carter swung around from her computer monitor. "Yes, sir." Then she addressed us, gesturing to a monitor overhanging the workstation. "The gate search program has compiled six gate addresses in the vicinity of the Andalite homeworld. Five came from the Ancient database and one came from the Abydos cartouche. As far as we can tell, these coordinates are on the extreme edge of the gate network, about as far from Earth as you can get and still be in the galaxy."

"So can we start narrowing it down?" Jake asked.

"Well, we've dialed the Goa'uld address before. It didn't connect, so we can rule that out. The other five we'll have to mark off the hard way. We already have several MALPs prepped."

"Wait, way even bother with a MALP?" asked Daniel. "Can't we just send a signal through? Surely the Andaltites have the capability to receive our transmissions." He glanced at Ax, who nodded.

"We don't know for sure who or what is on those five worlds. There could be something to which we don't want to announce our presence. The MALPs allow for more anonymity," replied General Hammond. He turned to Major Carter. "We have no teams due for a day, so the gate's free. You can begin dialing these addresses immediately."

"Yes, sir." She nodded at the sergeant. "You can start with the first Ancient address."

"Yes, ma'am." His fingers flew across the keyboard. There was grinding noise. We all looked out the control room window to see the inner track of the stargate, full of strange symbols, begin to spin.

A lot more went into opening the gate on Earth's end than when someone on another planet dialed in. _CLUNK!_ A clamp-like device came down on the inner track and it lit up. "Chevron one encoded," the man at the console announced.

The gate spun some more. "Chevron two encoded."

"Is that really necessary?" Marco asked. "Surely the thing would work without you announcing every step of the way."

The guy glared. "It's my _job_." Then, almost defiantly, "Chevron three encoded!"

The Animorphs all kind of smirked at Marco, who looked slightly put out. Finally, after three more encoded chevrons, a different announcement.

"Chevron seven locked."

KA-WOOSH!

Once again the bizarre horizontal geyser exploded out of the stargate. Even though we had seen it before by now, and were about twenty-five feet away behind bullet-proof glass, I still took a step back. I noticed some of the others doing the same. The SGC personnel, however, didn't flinch. This was old hat for them.

Major Carter nodded at the technician. "Send the MALP."

A hefty little six-wheeled device with a robotic arm on the ramp leading to the stargate started moving toward the portal. According to Major Carter, the thing was covered with all kinds of sensors and transmitters to determine if the planet was habitable and to attempt to communicate if anything was there.

A few moments after the probe disappeared into the gate, Major Carter announced that telemetry was coming in. As images appeared on the monitors in the control room, I sincerely hoped that we weren't looking at the Andalite homeworld.

The landscape was dark and blasted, illuminated only by the glow of the open wormhole and lava flows scattered across the field of view. A tornado could be seen whipping across one lava lake.

"Uhh, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this isn't the planet we're looking for," Colonel O'Neill said. "Carter?"

"No, sir. Radiation, temperature, atmosphere. The area around the gate at least is completely uninhabitable. And unless there are areas like this on the Andalite homeworld, I think we can scratch this one off the list."

"There are no such wastelands on my world," Ax said. "These radiation levels and temperatures are far too high, and there are more active volcanoes in this image than there are on my entire planet."

"We're going to have to leave the MALP," Major Carter said. "Not only is the environment deadly, but I don't see a DHD."

"Well you have more of them, right?" Rachel asked impatiently. "Let's just go to the next planet on the list."

"Why would there even be a stargate on planet like that?" I asked, as the wormhole shut down. "Who would use it? What _could_ use it?"

"You have to remember that the stargate network was created millions of years ago," Dr. Jackson said. "That planet was probably a lot like Earth when the Ancients first put a gate there."

Right, forgot about that. Million-year-old interstellar portals.

Blows the mind.

* * *

One hour and three planets- one address didn't connect- later, we were no closer to finding Ax's homeworld. We were about to give up and assume that the planet just didn't have a working stargate on it when Colonel O'Neill suggested that we try the address taken from the Goa'uld archives again. 

"Ya never know," he said. "Gates get buried; they get unburied, right? Dial 'er up, Walter."

With a resigned, "Yes, sir," the sergeant- Walter- dialed the gate once more. He did his standard chevron call out almost automatically until he got to the last one. He sounded almost surprised as he said, "Chevron seven, locked!" and the stargate sprang to life.

Colonel O'Neill looked smug. "I'm full of good ideas."

"Don't gloat just yet, Jack," Daniel reminded him, "we still don't know if this is the right planet. In fact, it's not likely that it is, since this is a Goa'uld- charted world and we've seen no indication of Goa'uld- Andalite interaction."

"Come on, Daniel. Sixth time's the charm," O'Neill said. "This'll be important, I can feel it."

"Good-discovering-new-allies-or-technology important or bad-uncovering-a-huge-new-threat important?"

"Considering our track record, I'd say it's 50-50."

"Guys, we're getting a signal from the MALP." Major Carter called there attention back to the monitors.

The screen was pretty dark, save for the dim glow of the stargate behind the camera and a brighter light a short ways in front of the probe.

"I believe the stargate is located in a cave," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, hold on," Major Carter said. "I think we can drive out of it." A light on the MALP turned on. "It looks pretty level."

The MALP passed what I had come to identify as a DHD, a controller for the stargate, and moment later emerged from the cave into a scene that was reminiscent of the first planet we tried, in that it was a scene from Hell. Oh, it was probably a different part of Hell than the first planet, but Hell all the same. The sky was a sickly shade of green, with lighting arcing across the dark clouds, occasionally striking the ground in the distance. The surface was dry, rocky, and barren, except for the occasional bizarre plant that grew up about a foot or so, then spread out horizontally in a wide net. A few yards in front of the probe, the land sloped down sharply, allowing for a panoramic view of the surrounding, lower landscape.

Below the rise that the MALP was on was a small lake, almost circular. More lakes, all rough circles, could be seen dotting the view to the horizon. Except they weren't filled with water. Instead they were filled with a sludgy grey liquid. With growing horror, I realized what this planet was. Gasps around me told me that I wasn't the only one. We had all heard the stories; Ax had shown us images. But it was the Pools dotting the surface that made it glaringly obvious what we were looking at. I spoke before anyone else.

"That's the Yeerk homeworld."

Colonel O'Neill turned to Dr. Jackson. "I think this falls under bad important."

* * *

Thanks for staying with it. And I've learned by now to put no mention of when the next update might be. 


End file.
